


love comes in bunches

by zyximb



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cashier, Alternate Universe - College/University, Childhood Friends, Comedy, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Nerdy Baekhyun, Romance, Two different endings, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 15:24:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 34,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12061758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zyximb/pseuds/zyximb
Summary: Baekhyun comes into Jongin's and Sehun's lives like a wrecking ball.orJongin and Sehun fight (not really) for Baekhyun's love.





	1. The Cashier

**Author's Note:**

> hey guys this was my first chaptered fic ever i posted it on aff but decided to post it here too. and this was when i first start writing non-smut so sorry if the writing isn't the best but i definitely improved over time throughout the chapters so yeah hope you guys enjoy it anyway! please excuse any mistakes and whatnot <3 feel free to comment along the way as you're reading and tell me what you think!

Jongin loaded up his truck with the last of his boxes before closing up the trunk. “Are you sure you have everything sweetie?” His mother asked worriedly.

 

“Yes mom, I’m sure. This is like the fifth time you’ve asked me.” Jongin pulled out his phone from his pocket to check the text he just received. “It’s Sehun. He said he’s at the apartment with the rest of the stuff.

 

I gotta get going if I wanna make it there before midnight.” His mother nodded and pulled him into her arms for a big hug. When she pulled away, he could see the tears in her eyes even though she was smiling at him.

 

“Mom I’ll be fine. Don’t worry.” He chuckled, pulling her in for another hug. She sniffled and wiped away her tears as she hugs him back. “I know, I know. I’m just going to miss you.”

 

His dad laughed, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her close to him. “He’s only going to be 4 hours away. We can visit him anytime,” his dad said, “now get going before your mom changes her mind and makes you stay.” Jongin smiled and nodded before giving them both a hug and got in his truck to leave for Seoul.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

“Hey I’m here,” he said as he walked up the dark walkway of the apartment complex, “where are you? I thought you were gonna be here to help me unpack.”

 

“Sorry I forgot I had a date so I left the key under the mat. I’ll come by tomorrow morning to help you, though!”

 

Jongin groaned as he lifted up the welcome mat in front of his door to get the key. “You chose a date over me?? Your best friend? Since middle school? Thanks a lot Oh Sehun.”

 

Jongin opened the door to the dark apartment and walked in, hands searching the wall for the light switch. “Whatever stop being so dramatic. I promise I’ll come tomorrow! You know I’ve been trying to get a date with Yixing for weeks! I couldn’t pass it up.”

 

Jongin rolled his eyes but nodded because he did know how much Sehun liked this guy. He told his bestfriend good bye and hung up the phone, scanning the apartment.

 

There were still a lot of unopened boxes scattered around the apartment, but Sehun had already neatly arranged the furniture earlier that day when he came to get the rest of Jongin's thing from the movers.

 

He sighed and checked the time on his phone, 11:25pm. His stomach growled and he remembered he had eaten all of the food his mom packed him on the long drive there.

 

He recalled seeing a grocery store a block away on his way to his apartment. He locked the door before going to his truck, he hoped the store was still open.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

Jongin walked through the automatic sliding doors and looked around the brightly lit store. There were only a couple people walking around through the aisles, which made sense since it was almost midnight.

He wondered what time they closed. He looked around the cash registers for a cashier so he could ask and he saw a boy with brown hair looking in the other direction. “Excuse me…” The cashier turned around and greeted him with a warm smile.

Jongin’s words get caught in his throat as he locked gazes with the other male, who's eyes formed little crescents when he smiled. He felt his heartbeat speed up as he stared at the boy.

His smile was the cutest thing he had ever seen and his brown hair looked fluffy and soft; like a little puppy that he just wanted to squeeze in his arms. “Uh sir?” The cashier looked at Jongin curiously, tilting his head sideways, adorably.

“Uh- yeah sorry,” Jongin quickly snapped out of his daze and answered the boy, “what time do you guys close?” The boy smiled again before replying cheerfully, “At midnight! So in like 30 minutes. 27 minutes to be exact.”

Jongin smiled and thanked him and quickly walked off to get a basket. He sped walked through the aisles and filled his basket with instant ramen, chips, and water bottles.

After getting everything he needed, he walked back to the cash register and put his items on the conveyer belt. The boy watched Jongin with a smile, waiting for him to be done unloading his basket.

“I like these chips too!” The boy chirped. Jongin chuckled at how the other seemed so excited about a bag of chips. He began to check out the items and Jongin began to check out the boy.

He noticed that the boy was a few inches shorter than him and that his lips pursed cutely when he was concentrated on working the cash register. Jongin subconsciously licked his lips as he watched him.

“Your total will be fifteen dollars and twenty cents, sir.” He reached into his pocket to get his wallet and handed the cashier a twenty dollar bill.

The shorter gave him his change and told him to have a good night while smiling at him. Jongin flashed him a smile back before heading home.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

The next morning Jongin is rudely awaken by the sound of knocking on his front door. He groaned as he checked the time on his phone, squinting at the bright light that blinded him in his dark room.

His phone read 7:00am. He sighed and dragged his exhausted body to the door; occasionally bumping into furniture and walls since he was still half asleep.

He looked through the peephole to Sehun standing there with a bag of McDonalds. Jongin sighed once more before clumsily opening the door.

“Morning sunshine.” Sehun said as he let himself in. “What the fuck are you doing here so early?” Jongin groaned.

“I thought I had a class at 8:30 but then I remembered today was Saturday so I decided to come and bring you breakfast. Plus I was excited to tell you about my date last night,” Sehun winked at him, “It went pretty well. And now I have more time to help you unpack; we’ll be done earlier.”

Jongin rolled his eyes and left to go brush his teeth. “When did you dye your hair blonde?” he asked Sehun.

Sehun took the food out from the paper bag and set them on the kitchen table. “Uh last month I think? I’m not sure, pretty recent though.” He shrugged. Jongin spit out the toothpaste and rinsed out his mouth.

“I’m a better blonde.” He teased. Sehun rolled his eyes and scoffed. “Whatever, you’re not even blonde anymore!” Jongin laughed and stuffed his mouth with a hashbrown.

“I still looked better than you blonde.” Sehun glared and threw a ketchup packet at him. “Don’t talk with your mouth full. You’re so disgusting.”

Jongin laughed and ripped open the ketchup, squirted some onto his hashbrown. “So tell me about your date.”

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

After taking an hour to eat their breakfast, the boys began to unpack the boxes that filled the living room. “Yixing sounds like a pretty a cool guy. I’m glad you had fun last night.”

 

Sehun smiled and nodded. “What about you?” he asked as he took out Jongin’s clothes from the box, “Have you been seeing anyone since you broke up with Junmyeon?”

 

Jongin shook his head and his mind went to the cashier he saw last night. “I saw a really cute cashier at the grocery store last night though.”

 

He smiled thinking about his eye smile. “Really? That one store a block away from here? What’s his name?” The blonde asked curiously. “Uh I don’t know actually…”

 

“You thought he was cute and you didn’t even think to look at his nametag.” Sehun deadpanned. “I don’t know, I just wasn’t thinking!” Jongin retorted, “I’ll probably see him again and I’ll check next time. He was really cute though.”

 

The other chuckled and smiled at him. He was happy Jongin had finally found someone he liked. Ever since his ex, Junmyeon, dumped him last year for some Chinese exchange student from Canada he kept saying he wasn't ready for a relationship.

 

Sehun could tell it really broke him even though Jongin insisted that he was okay. He didn't leave his house for a couple of weeks and Sehun had to practically drag him out of bed.

 

Now that he had found someone he likes it meant he could finally and completely move on from him.

 

“It’s been a while though, I bet you lost all your game.” He smirked.

 

Jongin scowled at him. “Did not.”

 

 


	2. Coming Back

By Wednesday, Jongin had completely settled in.

 

On Monday, Sehun had taken him to Seoul National University, to register for classes since he was transferring there from a local university in Suncheon.

 

He was supposed to start freshman year with his best friend, but his family needed him to help around at the bakery for the year, since finances weren't stable.

 

When the bakery started making more money, his parents told him that he could move to Seoul with Sehun by himself since they knew the two boys were grown enough to get settled in alone.

 

Jongin was currently sitting on his dark green couch and watching some zombie show Sehun told him about. His stomach growled and he got up to look in the fridge for something to eat.

 

He frowned when he saw that the fridge was empty and the cabinet where he stocked the instant ramen from the first night was bare as well.

 

“Stupid Sehun.” He mumbled to himself after remembering how Sehun had eaten many (and the last) of his ramen. He checked his phone for the time and the screen read 11:0pm.

 

He decided to take a quick run to the grocery store to stock up on more ramen.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

During the three minute drive, he felt his heart palpitating at the prospect of seeing the cashier from the other night again. Jongin hoped the boy was working tonight.

 

He got out of the car and walked through the sliding doors, casually looking around, trying not to get his hopes up about the cashier. His breath hitched when he saw a familiar brown haired boy standing at the cash register.

 

He smiled to himself and went on to grab a cart, then proceeded to fill it up with instant ramen packets once again. He passed by the produce section and stopped at the fruits.

 

His mother had told him to try to eat healthier. He scanned all the fruits before separating a banana from the bunch and shrugging as he put it in his cart.

 

Once he thought he had everything he needed, he rolled his cart to the register, to the cute boy from Saturday night. The boy smiled at Jongin and Jongin smiled back, unloading his cart onto the belt.

 

“Hello again.” The boy grinned while scanning the ramen packets.

 

Jongin was surprised but glad he remembered him. He cleared his throat before replying hello back.

 

He observed the boy, remembering to check his nametag this time. _BaekHyun_. He made a mental note to remember that. He watched Baekhyun’s hands as they picked up each packet.

 

Jongin couldn't help but think that Baekhyun's hands were really pretty. He looked back at his face and wondered how old he was.

 

He looked the same age, if not, younger, as him. His lips were pursed again and they were a very healthy shaded of pink. Baekhyun picked up the banana and looked at Jongin with an eyebrow raised.

 

“You’re only buying one banana?” Jongin looked at him, confused.

 

“Yeah, why?” He asked amusedly.

 

“That’s really inefficient.” Baekhyun cutely frowned.

 

“And why’s that?” Jongin asked, the corner of his lips quirked and his eyebrow raised.

 

“Once you eat it you’ll have to come back to get another one.”  Jongin thought about it and shrugged.

 

“I don’t really like bananas that much anyway. I just felt like eating one today.”

 

Baekhyun’s eyes widened. “What!? You don’t like bananas? Why not?” He questioned.

 

Jongin chuckled and said, “I don’t know, I just like other fruit better. Bananas are so soft, I guess I just like crunchy things more.”

 

Baekhyun pursed his lips into a thin line, his cheeks slightly puffing out. “Hmm I see...you're strange.”

 

Jongin stared at him. _He is really cute_ , he thought to himself. He laughed and Baekhyun looked up at him.

 

“What’s so funny?” He asked.

 

Jongin clears his throat and reached for his wallet in his pocket. “Nothing. You’re just really cute.”

 

The shorter’s cheeks immediately reddened. “No I’m not!” Baekhyun declared, “By the way, the bananas are gonna be sad that you took away their son.”

 

Jongin bit back a smile. “Really... They’re going to be sad?”

 

“Mhmm hmmm,” Baekhyun nodded, “You’re separating their family!”  

 

Jongin smiled and nodded. “I see...too bad I don’t really like bananas.” The shorter frowned and handed him his bags.

 

“You’ll come back for them.”

 

~~~

 

 

Jongin did come back for them. On Friday night he suddenly had a craving for more bananas.

His mother also yelled at him over the phone yesterday saying that eating one banana was not good enough and that he should buy ingredients to cook with instead of just eating instant ramen all the time.

 

He drove to the grocery store for the second time that week. This time he filled his cart with vegetables, bags of rice, eggs, and other ingredients for meals.

 

“Hello again! Do you usually go grocery shopping this much in one week?” Baekhyun questioned, his bright smile present as usual.

 

Jongin wondered how he was always so cheerful and energized when he had to work until midnight so often.

 

“No...I just moved here on Saturday so I don’t really have anything in my fridge yet.”

 

“Oh, really?” Baekhyun inquired, “Where from? Do you live close to here, is that why you come so often?”

 

“Mhm hmm, from Suncheon. I live like a block away, my apartment is a three minute drive from here,” Jongin explained, “So uhm, do you work every night?”

 

The other shook his head, carefully picking up the carton of eggs. “I work Saturdays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.”

 

Jongin asked him why he worked so late. “I like doing things at night, it’s fun. It’s really calming and quiet. And sometimes interesting people come late at night. Like you,  buying one banana.”

 

Jongin laughed. “Don’t you get tired though?”

 

Baekhyun shook his head again. “Not really. I’ve always had more energy at night, I’m a night owl. I like singing to the melons when there’s no one here.”

 

They both looked at each other and bursted into laughter.

 

“And you call me strange.” Jongin shook his head playfully. Baekhyun grabbed the bundle of bananas and looked at him with a smug face.

 

“I thought you didn’t like bananas?”  

 

Jongin rolled his eyes. “I just felt like eating more bananas.  Plus I felt bad separating the son and his family.”

 

Baekhyun smiled victoriously. “See...pretty inefficient huh? I knew you’d come back for them.”

 


	3. Soup Cans

“I saw the cashier again last week.” Sehun looked up from his laptop at his friend.

 

“Really?! That’s great. Why didn’t you tell me earlier? What’s his name? Or did you forget to look at his name tag again…”

 

Jongin glared at him. “For your information, his name is Baekhyun,” Jongin started, “and I didn’t tell you earlier because you’ve been so busy with Yixing I didn’t want to bother you. It’s not like it’s a big deal. I barely know him.”

 

Sehun leaned back on couch and eyed Jongin while crossing his arms. He could tell that the other was just in denial and that it really was a big deal.

 

This was the first guy he liked ever since Junmyeon!

 

“Baekhyun huh...That name sounds familiar…” Sehun mumbled.

 

“Really? Do you know him from school or something?” Jongin asked, hoping that Baekhyun went to their school so he could find out more about him.

 

The blonde shook his head. “No I don’t know any Baekhyun's from school...It just sounds familiar. Probably one of my friends’ friends or something.”

 

Jongin nodded, a bit disappointed.

 

“So what happened? Did you talk to him? Or did you choke?” Sehun smirked.

 

Jongin chucked a pillow at his face and got up to grab a water bottle.  “I did not choke. I talked to him.”

 

The blonde laughed and flung the pillow back on Jongin’s chair. “About what?” He asked.

 

Jongin took a gulp from the bottle before throwing it to Sehun, who caught it before it could hit his face like the pillow. “Bananas.”

 

“Bananas...” The blonde deadpanned.

 

“Bananas.” Jongin repeated.

 

“Is that code for something? Is there something you’re hiding from me? Your best friend? Since middle school?” Sehun asked, raising his eyebrows dramatically at Jongin.

 

Jongin rolled his eyes “First, don’t use my own words against me brat. Second, we just talked about bananas. He was saying how it was weird that I was only buying one banana.”

 

Sehun made a disgusted face as he went back to doing his homework on his laptop. “He was right, you _are_ weird. Who buys only one banana?”

 

The other scoffed as he resumed with his homework as well.

 

“Next time, try talking to him about something other than fruit.”

 

“Like what?”

 

“Literally anything else!” the blonde exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air, “ Try to get to know him or something I don’t know. You did you lose all your game, what a shame...At least you know his name…”

 

Jongin threw another pillow at him. “Stop with your rhymes.”

 

Sehun threw the pillow back at him, hitting him square on the face. “I’ll stop when you stop throwing things at me!”

 

They both got back to their homework but the silence didn’t last long as Sehun spoke up again.

 

“Why don’t you invite him to Kris’s party next Saturday?”

 

Jongin thought about it, _isn’t that rushing it_? He didn’t know him that well. Hell, the only things he knew about him were name and what days he worked.

 

 _And that he was incredibly adorable_ , he thought to himself.

 

“He works on Saturdays.”

 

“Wow you already know his work schedule? Stalker.”

 

Jongin threw the pillow again, but this time Sehun saw it coming and dodged it.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“Hello again, frequent customer.”

 

Baekhyun was wearing a glasses with black frames this time. Jongin liked the way they looked on him.

 

“My name is Jongin.” Baekhyun scrunched his nose upon seeing more instant ramen packets.

 

“Hello Jongin, you sure do eat a lot of instant ramen. That can’t be healthy.”

 

Jongin’s heart skipped a beat when Baekhyun said his name. He decided that could used to hearing how it sounded rolling off of the other’s tongue.  

 

He gulped and licked lips before replying. “In my defense, I’m not the only one eating them, my best friend comes over a lot and eats all my food.”

 

“Mhmm…” Baekhyun slowly nodded as he put the ramen into the plastic bag. “Why do you always go grocery shopping so late?”

 

Jongin shrugged. “I guess it’s the only time I’m really free, with school and all.” _And I know it’s when you’re here._

 

Baekhyun suddenly gasped loudly, surprising the other.

 

“What’s wrong?” Jongin questioned.

 

“I had to restock the soup cans! Ugh, I forgot! And it’s almost closing time! My boss is gonna kill me.”

 

“Can’t you just do it quickly?”

 

“Ugh he wanted me to stack them all nicely in a pyramid for the display...They’re on sale. There’s a lot of boxes and they’re heavy. Great...I’m gonna be here all night.” He sighed.

 

“I uh- I can help you, if you want.” Jongin blurted.

 

“No it’s okay...I don’t wanna make you stay here all night just to stack cans of soup.” Baekhyun muttered as he walked out from behind the register.

 

“No really, it’s fine. I wanna help. I usually sleep late anyway.” Jongin smiled at him.

 

Baekhyun looked up at him, the corners of his lips curving up to form his signature smile. “Thanks, Jongin.”  

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“Ah we’re finally done,” Baekhyun sighed in relief, “It took an hour but we’re done, and we did a pretty good job if I do say so myself.”

 

He stepped back to admire their work, the soup cans were neatly stacked in the shape of a pyramid and they were all turned so that the labels were facing out.

 

“Thank you again, for helping. I probably would’ve taken double the amount of time if I did it by myself.” He smiled up at Jongin.

 

Jongin’s heart swelled upon seeing the other’s crescent eyes.  “No problem. It was fun actually.”

 

During the hour that they were stacking, they had been talking and Jongin found out that Baekhyun was a year older than him, which surprised him because he of his youthful appearance.

 

He also found that they were both attending Seoul National University but Baekhyun was an engineering major and Jongin was a business major which explains why they’ve never ran into each other school since the College of Engineering was on the opposite side of the campus from College of Business Administration where he and Sehun went.

 

Baekhyun had insisted that even if may have sounded like he was a nerd for being into engineering that he was actually really cool and not nerdy at all.

 

Jongin joked and told him the glasses said otherwise.

 

He talked a lot about a new show he was binge watching called Once Upon a Time, Jongin listened closely even though he had no idea what was going on.

 

He thought it was really amusing and cute how Baekhyun was talking so passionately about a TV show and chuckled to himself as he recalled the conversation they had.  

 

“And then Red Riding Hood turned out to be the wolf all along! I even never saw it coming…” Baekhyun sighed disappointedly as he shook his head while closing his eyes.

 

He also learned that Baekhyun was living alone after moving to Seoul from Chungdong and that he doesn’t like cucumbers.

 

He was really silly and witty and made Jongin laugh a lot.

 

Jongin told Baekhyun about his family’s bakery and Baekhyun asked for Jongin to bake something for him sometime.

 

“I, uh, only really know how to make simple things like cookies or chocolate cake,” Jongin awkwardly confessed. He never really spent time in the kitchen since his studies took up most of his time.

 

“Cookies are fine, I love cookies. Simpler things are better anyway,” Baekhyun said as he placed a can down to finish a line.

 

Baekhyun asked him a lot of random questions like what was his favorite color, his favorite ice cream flavor, and what was his favorite TV show.

 

Jongin answered Baekhyun's questions as quickly as he spat that time and he couldn't help but find the whole exchange amusing.

 

He ended up explaining the whole plot of the zombie show he was watching with Sehun after Baekhyun had asked him to, and the cashier listened intently to every word only interrupting to ask questions.

 

By the end of his synopsis, Jongin had apparently gotten Baekhyun interested enough in the show that the older male decided to add it to his list of shows he's currently watching.

 

“Sorry you had to stay so late...I’ll buy you a bag of those chips you always buy as a thank you.”

 

Baekhyun was already turning to the snack aisle By the end of his sentence, but Jongin grabbed him by his wrist.

 

“It's okay I don't really need them right now so don't bother.” Jongin reluctantly dropped Baekhyun's wrist and took a step back.

 

“Uhm do you live close to here? I can give you a ride back. You said you missed the last bus earlier right?” He asked.

 

“Are you sure? I can just walk, it’s not that far.” Baekhyun said as he took off his nametag.

 

“Yeah it’s fine. Plus I wouldn’t want you to walk home alone at almost two in the morning.”

 

“Alright then, lemme go get my stuff and I’ll meet you outside?”

 

Jongin nodded and went out to wait in his truck.

 

Once Baekhyun was done grabbing his belongings he locked up the store and joined the other in the car.

 

He told Jongin his address and they drove off.

 

Baekhyun looked at home in Jongin's passenger seat as he sang along to the radio and Jongin, enjoying the other's voice, let him change the station to find another one after the next few songs proved to be relatively uninteresting.

 

Sehun often whined at Jongin because the younger believed the other had poor taste; he can almost hear the high pitched complaints of his roommate if he ever found out he granted Baekhyun the permission to do something he had yet to allow his best friend to do.

 

They arrived at Baekhyun’s apartment in about ten minutes.

 

“Thank you again, Jongin! For everything.” Baekhyun grinned as he unbuckled his seat belt.

 

“You’re welcome, Baekhyun” Jongin chuckled.

 

The other quickly got out of the car and walked up the steps before stopping and running back down to the truck.

 

“Oh yeah and goodnight.” He chirped and then turned back around to run up the steps and through the doors of the apartment complex before Jongin could even say goodnight back.

 

“Goodnight.” He said quietly, smiling to himself as he drove home.

 


	4. The Party

Ever since that night Jongin stayed back to help Baekhyun arrange the cans, the pair had grown closer given Jongin's frequent visits.

 

Their conversations had shifted from talking just about fruits,which had been the topic of discussion another two times since that night. Baekhyun even allowed Jongin to drop him home again one night.

 

They had exchanged theories about the zombie show and Jongin learned that Baekhyun knew a lot of random facts, like the longest flight record of a chicken was 13 seconds.

 

It was on another Wednesday night when Jongin had stopped by the store after his study group. Food didn't even last a week in Jongin's and Sehun's apartment because the younger was often peckish, not that Jongin minded though. He was always looking for an excuse to talk to Baekhyun about anything and this time, Baekhyun was telling him about a new drama he was watching.

 

“I don’t think she’s is gonna end up with the guy I like…”He sighed.

 

Jongin laughed as he grabbed the bags of newly bought groceries from him. They exchanged goodbyes and Jongin was about to turn to leave but he remembered Sehun telling him to invite Baekhyun to Kris's party. After contemplating for a few moments, Jongin turned around and looked at the cashier, who was too busy counting the change to notice Jongin’s stare.

 

“Are you uhm- doing anything after work on Saturday?” Jongin asked nervously.

 

Baekhyun looked up from counting some quarters, obviously surprised Jongin was still there. before looking up at the ceiling to think.

 

“I don’t think so. I usually don’t have anything to do after midnight. Why? Are you gonna invite me to hang out and then murder me in a dark alley somewhere and bury my body before the sun comes up?” He asked, his eyes narrowing.

 

Jongin waited for Baekhyun to laugh and say “kidding!”,but he continued to eye Jongin suspiciously. _He really is an odd one_ , Jongin thought.

 

“No… and that’s extremely specific by the way, my friend is having a party and it starts at ten but you’re gonna be working so I figured if you wanted to, you could come after work? His parties run pretty late anyway.”

 

Baekhyun stared at him, cutely pursing his lips and narrowing his eyes again. “You’re gonna be there right? I don’t want to show up and then not know anybody.”

 

Jongin nodded and suggested that they exchanged numbers so that he could text Baekhyun the details, to which Baekhyun agreed to right away. Jongin suppressed the grin that was threatening to break out as he watched Baekhyun type the digits into his phone and mentally gave himself a pat on the back for going through with the invite.

 

Sehun bet him that he wasn’t going to have to guts to do it and now he owed Jongin five bucks.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

It was now Saturday night and Jongin hadn’t seen Baekhyun since he invited him to the party, but they had been texting about the details.

 

Jongin offered to pick Baekhyun up from work and give him a ride to the party and he gracefully accepted it since he didn’t want to get lost trying to look for Kris’s house.

 

Jongin checked the time, which read midnight, and he gave himself one final glance over. He was wearing a loose black long sleeve and dark blue jeans and his hair gelled up.

 

He was about to leave his house to go pick up the other when he received a text. He pulled his phone from his back pocket and unlocked the screen to look at the text while walking to his truck.

 

_Baekhyun: “I’m waiting outside the store. This better not be a trap to murder me!!!!!!! D: <”_

 

He chortled before putting his phone back in his pocket and putting his keys in the ignition.

 

Once he pulled up to the store he saw Baekhyun standing in front of the doors of the store. He was wearing a oversized white sweater, black distressed jeans, and a black hat that was on backwards. Jongin also noticed he was wearing the glasses he wore the other night.

 

He thought the other looked really good. Baekhyun waved at Jongin once he spotted his car and ran over to hop in the front seat. Jongin tore his eyes away from the smaller’s frame and focused his attention on the road as Baekhyun enthusiastically buckled himself in and clapped his hands together. “Off to the ball we go! I hope your friends think I’m cool.”

 

He shifted excitedly in the seat, his fluffy hair slightly bouncing.

 

Jongin laughed at Baekhyun’s energy, especially since it was midnight and he had just gotten off from a four hour shift at work.

 

“Don’t worry, they will.”

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“Wow, your friend’s house is really big.” Baekhyun looked up in awe as they pulled into the driveway of Kris’s house.

 

“Yeah he’s a rich kid, always throwing parties.”

 

“Mhmm, like Gatsby.”

 

Jongin looked at him confused and Baekhyun laughed.

 

“The Great Gatsby!” Baekhyun lightly punched Jongin's arm when he realized the younger didn't immediately get the reference.

 

“Oh yeah, I watched that movie last week.”

 

“I like the book better.” Baekhyun shrugged as he got out the truck.

 

As they walked up the door, they could already see bright lights coming from inside and hear music playing loudly along with laughter.

“Uh my friends can be really weird and obnoxious so...prepare yourself.” Jongin said, ringing the doorbell.

The door swung open to reveal a man wearing a white t-shirt and black jeans. He was taller than Jongin by a couple inches, and his dirty blonde hair was styled similarly to Jongin's.

 

“Hey Kris.” Jongin flashed the taller a wide smile.

 

“Oh hey! It’s about time you showed up. Guys, Jongin’s here!” Kris yelled into the house, “Who’s this?” He looked down at Baekhyun,observing him.  

 

“My friend, Baekhyun.” Baekhyun looked up at Kris,and Jongin could tell he felt somewhat nervous under his intimidating stare but he smiled anyway. “Hello!”

 

Kris’s eyes raked over over the shorter’s body before nodding in approval.  

 

Jongin hit the back of his friend’s head and ushered Baekhyun to where the rest of his friends were.

 

“HEY! JONGIN!” One of his seemingly-drunk friends shout over the loud music.

 

“Hey guys, this is Baekhyun. Baekhyun this Tao,” Jongin pointed to the drunk friend, “Chanyeol, and Luhan. That was Kris at the door and Sehun should be somewhere around here with Yixing.”

 

“Hey everyone, I’m Baekhyun.” He smiled and waved to everyone.

 

“He’s hot.” Chanyeol smirked.

 

Baekhyun eyes slightly widened as he awkwardly smiled and fidgeted as he felt the other's gaze slowly take in his form.

 

Jongin fought back the urge to punch Chanyeol in the teeth, he never liked him that much because he was cocky playboy and this pretty much solidified his opinion. He only hung out with him because he was friends with Kris.

 

“Ugh shut up, Park. You’re gross and scaring the poor boy,” Luhan grimaced, “Don’t mind him, he can never keep it in pants.”

 

“Yah! Stop spreading lies about me to our guest.” Chanyeol chucked an empty beer can at him.

 

“Uh let’s go find Sehun and get away from these idiots.” Baekhyun nodded and  Jongin guided him through the crowd of drunk people grinding on each other and drinking beer out of red cups.

 

“Sehun!” Jongin spotted his best friend’s blonde hair standing out from all the people in the kitchen.

 

“Oh hey, Jongin you’re finally here!” Sehun turned around, handing Jongin a cup of beer to which he declined.

 

“Baekhyun this is my best friend Sehun and this is his boyfriend, Yixing. Guys this is Baekhyun.”

 

Baekhyun smiled at the couple and Yixing reached out to shake his hand. “Hey Baekhyun, welcome to the party. I hope you have fun!”

 

Baekhyun thanked him and took note of the cute dimple that appeared whenever Yixing smiled.

 

Sehun looked at him with furrowed brows. He looked familiar, especially his smile. He knew that eye smile from anywhere.

 

“Baekhyun hyung?” The blonde asked.

 

Jongin was confused, _How does he know him?_

 

“Sorry, do I know you from somewhere?” Baekhyun looked him, confused.

 

“You don’t remember me? Oh Sehun from next door when you were like five years old.”

 

Jongin’s eyes widened, he stared at them in shock. Yixing looked at all of them in confusion.

 

“Sehunnie!” the shorter gasped, “You’re so grown up, well obviously cause it’s been like ten years almost but you look different. You’re so much taller now! You use to be shorter than me… and you dyed your hair blonde! I barely recognized you! Have you turned into a delinquent?!”

 

“I see you haven’t changed much, still dramatic as ever.” Sehun laughed and playfully rolled his eyes, earning him a slap to the arm from the older.

 

He hadn’t seen Baekhyun in so long, ever since Baekhyun and his family moved back to his old home in Chungdong when he was ten.

 

They were neighbors for five years and stuck to each other like glue. They both cried when the older found out they were moving, they promised that they would stay in contact but they were only kids and ended up forgetting about each other overtime.

 

He smiled to himself remembering all the dumb things they use to do like trying to climb a really tall tree in the park to see a bird's nest up close which resulted Baekhyun breaking his ankle.

 

He watched as the shorter excitedly told Jongin stories about then they were younger. He didn’t know why heart was slightly beating faster as he saw Baekhyun’s signature crescent eyes when he smiled.

 

He felt confused.

 

“And I use to always bite him like this.” He grabbed Sehun’s arm and tried to chomp down on it, Sehun pulled away telling him he was weird causing the older to pout.

 

“Wow I guess that explains why Sehun thought your name sounded familiar.” Jongin said, trying to digest everything that just happened.

 

“Jongin you stole my best friend!” The four of them bursted into laughter, but Jongin felt his stomach tighten.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

By 3am most of Kris’s party guests had either left or passed out. Kris, Tao, and Chanyeol were lying unconscious on couch in the living room surrounded by beer cans and chips. Luhan left with some girl about half an hour ago.

 

Sehun had taken Yixing to one of Kris’s many guest rooms and made sure he was safe and sleeping before coming back downstairs to talk to Baekhyun and Jongin.

 

The three of them were some of the few that weren’t completely wasted and on the verge of passing out, Sehun and Baekhyun didn’t drink much and Jongin didn’t drink at all since he knew he was going to have to drive Baekhyun home.

 

During the party Baekhyun and Sehun spent sometime catching up. They both took turns telling Jongin and Yixing stories about when they were younger.

 

Then it was time for Jongin and Sehun to talk about how they met and all the crazy adventures they’ve had since middle school.

 

Both Baekhyun and Yixing laughed until they cried when found out that the two met in the 6th grade when Jongin accidentally tripped and somehow managed to spill his water onto Sehun’s crotch during lunch, making it look like he pissed himself.

 

Sehun got upset and claimed that Jongin did it on purpose and Jongin got upset because Sehun was being unreasonable because he clearly didn’t do it on purpose.

 

They almost got into a fight but a teacher stopped them and sent them to principal’s office. They both got detention and after having to spend two hours together, they finally got over themselves and decided to become friends.

 

Baekhyun couldn’t believe how dumb they were and Yixing had a lot of fun hearing all the stupid things his boyfriend did when he was younger.

 

After they noticed that the party had finally died down, they all went outside for fresh air. They sat on the porch and watched someone get from the front lawn and stagger a couple feet to puke into the flowers.

 

“Gross,” Baekhyun snickered, “Tonight was fun. Thanks for inviting me, Jongin.”

 

Jongin leaned back onto the step and smiled at him. “No problem, I had fun too.”

 

Sehun smiled as he watched the two. He could tell Jongin really liked him by the way he looked at the other.

 

He was happy for his best friend but there was feeling in his chest he couldn’t shake off. “It was nice seeing you again brat,” he elbowed sehun, “You’re still as whiny as I remembered.”

 

Sehun scowled at him. “No I’m not! I was never whiny.” He argued, crossing his arms like an upset child.

 

Jongin and Baekhyun both looked at each other and laughed.

 

“It’s late, we should get going. Are you staying here with Yixing? I can drive you guys home if you want.” They all got up from the steps and faced each other.

 

“No it’s fine. I’m just gonna sleep here with him, I don’t wanna wake him up. I’ll see you guys soon?” Sehun said.

 

They all said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.

 

“I’m glad you had fun, I was kind of worried my friends would scare you off. They’re cool once you get to know them but yeah they can be pretty stupid sometimes.” Jongin said as he drove to Baekhyun’s house.

 

“It’s fine, it was probably the alcohol talking. My friends are pretty weird too, a lot of your friends are really tall by the way. And I can’t believe I ran into Sehun after all these years, what a coincidence.”

 

Jongin couldn’t help but feel a _little_ jealous that Baekhyun and Sehun were so close, but he understood that they were just childhood friends and that Sehun had Yixing, plus Sehun would never do that to him.  

 

Once they arrived at Baekhyun’s house they both said goodnight, Baekhyun said it was technically morning so he said good morning instead, and Baekhyun disappeared through the doors of the apartment complex.

 

Jongin waited for Baekhyun to get in safely, then sighed contently as he drove off into the empty streets of Seoul.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

Sehun, on the other hand, was lying in bed next to Yixing, trying to absorbed everything that happened that night.

 

He stared up at the ceiling and thought about Baekhyun, he never realized how much he missed him until he saw him again.

 

He grinned, thinking about how Baekhyun hadn’t really changed from since when he was a kid. He was still silly and funny as ever.

 

His heart sped up a little when he pictured the other’s smile.

 

Sehun bit down on his bottom lip and furrowed his brows. He was still confused at what he was feeling. All he knew was that he was definitely happy for Jongin.  

 

He was glad his best friend finally gathered up the courage to invite Baekhyun to the party and ask for his number. Even if it meant he owed Jongin five dollars.

 

He decided that he was probably just buzzed and tired from the alcohol and that he needed sleep.

He pushed all his thoughts aside and cuddled close to Yixing, he sighed before closing his eyes and hoped that he would feel better when he woke up in the morning.


	5. Conflicted

After the party, Jongin gave Baekhyun more frequent rides home from his job, claiming that he was on his way home from somewhere so he wanted to drop by, but Jongin still doesn't have the guts to ask him out or spend time with him outside their interactions in the store and rides home but he was trying to change that.

 

When Jongin finally baked the cookies he had promised to Baekhyun, the other cheered and excitedly ripped the bag open and shoved one in his mouth.

 

His eyes brightly lit up and broke into a big smile, his cheeks filled with cookie looking like an adorable chipmunk. “Waaahhh! They’re so good! I love chocolate chip cookies…”

 

Jongin laughed at the other’s dramatic reaction. “Really? I forgot to taste them and I wasn’t sure if they’d be good...I haven’t baked anything in while.”

 

The shorter nodded eagerly. “Mhm hmm! They’re super good, thank you very much Jongin.”

 

Jongin ruffled Baekhyun’s hair and told him it was no trouble, even though he had to buy all the ingredients and now he has no use for them, he figured he would just save them for when Baekhyun wanted more cookies.

 

“So...you wanna come over on Thursday and hang out? I know you and Sehun have wanted to hang out and catch up ever since the party but you’ve both been busy for the past couple of weeks and he's free Thursday. I thought we could all hang out.”

 

“Hmmm okay, but only because you baked me cookies.” Jongin narrowed his eyes at him and Baekhyun laughed.

 

“Just kidding, of course I would wanna hang out with you guys.”

 

Baekhyun told him he would stop by after his afternoon class and Jongin told him he couldn’t wait, and he felt genuinely excited to see the other later.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“When’s Baekhyun coming?” Sehun asked, kicking his feet up onto Jongin’s coffee table and popping a handful of popcorn into his mouth.

 

“He just texted me, he should be here in like five minutes. Shit, I forgot to shower and I just got back from the gym, I’m gonna go take one really quick. Open the door for him yeah?”

 

The blonde hummed and continued to watch the zombie show while stuffing his face. The doorbell suddenly rang and he got up to open the door, his eyes still glued to the TV trying not to miss anything even though he had already seen this episode.

 

He opened the door to reveal a red nosed Baekhyun looking up at him through a pair of glasses, his chin was tucked into the scarf that was wrapped around his neck.

 

His cheeks were flushed and he was wearing a beige oversized sweater, Sehun figured that it was cold outside since it was pretty late at night.

 

The younger immediately softened when he made eye contact with those puppy dog eyes, his heart started beating fast like the first time he saw him at the party and he felt weird again.

 

“Hi Sehunnie,” Baekhyun greeted, pushing his glasses up, “aren’t you gonna let me in?” Sehun snapped out of his daze and moved aside to let him in.

 

“Oh uh- Hey hyung, yeah sorry come in.” The elder smiled and walked through the door, looking all around the apartment,taking in his surroundings.

 

“It’s so nice here, I like the colors of the walls. Where’s Jongin?” He asked.

 

“He’s taking a shower. Do you want anything to drink? Maybe coffee or something? You look cold.” He walked the kitchen and opened the cabinet to grab a mug.

 

“Coffee would nice. And yeah it was warm during the day but I heard it was gonna get cooler at night so I brought a sweater and scarf just in case since I knew I’d have to wait for the bus and whatnot.” He said as he scanned his surroundings.

 

Baekhyun walked around the room and scrunched his nose when he saw the mess Sehun had made with the popcorn on the couch. “You’re so messy.”

 

“Oh, I didn’t even noticed. I was too distracted watching TV I guess.”

 

“You watch The Walking Dead too?! I love this show, Jongin told me about it.” Sehun laughed and handed the other a mug of hot coffee, Baekhyun muttered a quiet ‘thank you’ before taking a little sip.

 

“I’m the one that told _him_ about it.”  They both sat down beside each other on the couch and watched the show in silence.

 

Sehun stole glances at the elder and watched as he sipped on his coffee and licked his lips after every sip. The younger caught himself licking his own lips as he watched him.

 

He swallowed hard and forced himself to look away. _What are you doing_...He thought to himself as he shook his head and massaged his temples with one hand.

 

“So, did you hear about that one guy?” Baekhyun broke the silence. Sehun looked at him curiously.

 

“What guy?” The other simply shrugged. “I don’t know, I was just trying to make conversation.”

 

They both stared at each other with straight faces until they simultaneously threw their head back in laughter.

 

“You’re so weird.” Sehun said as he wiped away a tear, trying to calm down.

 

Baekhyun just shrugged again, “Prove it.”

 

The younger asked Baekhyun about school and how he was doing, he was surprised to learn that he went to same school as him and Jongin at the party.

 

Baekhyun told him that he was doing fine and that he was working on a group project in his mechanical engineering class and that he had busy tutoring other students after school on his days off from work.

 

He asked the younger if he was doing fine in school and that he’d better not be getting into trouble or else.

 

Sehun told him that he was doing fine and that he and Jongin went to study groups every Wednesday night.

 

Baekhyun said that they should hang out sometime when they’re both free to do some childhood friend bonding and Sehun nonchalantly agreed, even though on the inside he felt a fluttering feeling in his chest.

 

They exchanged numbers and Baekhyun rambled on about what they could do, something about ice skating and how they should race.

 

“How’s Yixing by the way? He’s so nice, I like him! I can’t believe little Sehunnie has a boyfriend and I don’t…”

 

Sehun tried his best to laugh normally but he couldn’t help feeling a pang of guilt when the other mentioned Yixing.

 

He felt so conflicted, why was he feeling so nervous around his friend he’s known since he was four years old? Why couldn’t he stop staring at the other’s pink lips when he talked or why did he find his  smile so fucking adorable?

 

He felt like he was wronging his boyfriend in someway, even if he wasn’t actually doing anything. He also felt like he was wronging his best friend, had _known_ how much Jongin liked Baekhyun.

 

Sehun was really happy for him, but there was a feeling inside his chest he just couldn’t shake off, all he knew was that he couldn’t act upon it and betray his friend or his boyfriend.

 

He tried to convince himself that he was just really happy to be reunited with his childhood friend after so long, after all Sehun had looked up to Baekhyun like an older brother when they were kids, he always following the older around. He was a really shy and quiet kid and it was hard for him to make friends.

 

All the other kids always said that he looked mean and never wanted to play with him but Baekhyun was the first to come up to him one day while he was playing alone on the front lawn of his house.

 

_“Do you wanna join my marching band?” Baekhyun asked. Sehun was sitting on the grass, playing with his toy cars when a boy with a wide smile walked up to him, holding a plastic recorder in one hand and the handle of a red wagon in the other hand._

_The younger looked up at the boy standing in front of him, blocking him from the sun. He looked at his and then at the wagon, which contained a toy drum and two little drum sticks. “Okay.”_

_Sehun got up, noticing that he was a couple inches shorter than the other._

_“Here you can play the drum. I’m Baekhyun! Mommy told me you were younger than me so call me hyung okay?”_

_Sehun nodded and carefully took the toy drum from Baekhyun’s hand. “Your name is Sehun right?” Sehun nodded._

_“I’m gonna call you... Sehunnie! And we are now best friends okay?” Baekhyun declared with both hands on either sides of his hips._

_For the first time since Baekhyun moved into the house next to Sehun’s, he saw the other smile and from then on, Baekhyun made it his mission to always make the younger smile. “Now...follow me!”_

_Baekhyun marched down the sidewalk as he blew on his recorder. Sehun followed him, tapping on the toy drum. The younger was happy to have someone to call his best friend._

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

That night was spent watching movies and munching on a lot of junk food. Jongin was happy he was able to spend time with Baekhyun, even if was in a group and in a platonic way.

 

He was okay with taking things slow and starting as friends.

 

He didn’t want to rush and mess anything up in anyway so he decided that he would ask Baekhyun out when the time was right. Sehun was glad that he finally got to spend time with the elder also.

 

After he had exchanged numbers with him he didn’t actually expect Baekhyun to text him often, but he did.

 

At first he asked if Yixing would be okay with them texting, Sehun told him that it was fine. He even told Yixing what Baekhyun had said and his boyfriend laughed saying that of course it was okay that his childhood friend wanted to talk to him.

 

He told Sehun that he had complete and total trust in him and Sehun couldn’t help but feel a little guilty even though he wasn’t doing anything wrong.

 

The next few days following the night of their boys night in, Baekhyun had texted him at random times, about odd things he remembered or saw.

 

Every text made Sehun confused but laugh nonetheless. He was sitting in bed, typing the essay that was due tomorrow when his phone vibrated.

 

_Baek Hyung: you better be working on your essay_

_To Baek Hyung: I was before u rudely interrupted me_

_Baek Hyung: you shouldn't have procrastinated :/_

 

Sehun chuckled, he noticed that the elder used that face often when texting.

 

_To Baek Hyung: u sure do like that slant face_

_Baek Hyung: there’s just so much emotion and feel in that one face :/_

_Baek Hyung: no words are needed_

_Baek Hyung: :/_

 

He chuckled again and rolled his eyes before locking his phone and went back to typing up a storm. He scoffed when he felt his phone vibrate again.

 

_Baek Hyung: good luck sehunnie_

 

Sehun tried his best to ignore any feelings of butterflies but despite all the effort to act calm and collected, a grin broke out on his face.


	6. In My Arms

Sehun and Jongin were walking around the mall while they waited for their movie to start when Jongin spotted a certain brown-haired boy waiting in line for frozen yogurt at the food court.

 

“Hey isn’t that Baekhyun?” Jongin pointed over to the boy.

 

Sehun looked over to where his friend was pointing and he suddenly felt butterflies in his stomach. They both walked over to the yogurt shop and saw that he was with two other guys.

 

“Jongin! Sehunnie!” Baekhyun excitedly waved when he spotted the two walking toward him. Jongin felt his heart race as soon he made eye contact with the other.

 

“Guys this is Sehun and Jongin, and Jongin and Sehun this is Jongdae and Kyungsoo.” They all greeted each other and Baekhyun told Sehun and Jongin how Jongdae and Kyungsoo were his friends from college and that they were also engineering majors.

 

“Kyungsoo’s been my best friend since high school!” He hooked an arm around the other’s neck and put him in a headlock. “Do you want to get hit?”

Kyungsoo threatened and Baekhyun immediately let go, laughing.

 

“Yah!! What about me?! I’m your best friend too!” Jongdae jumped and put his arms around the both of them.

 

“Oh yeah we met Jongdae at the beginning of our freshman year, he’s our best friend too.”

 

“You’re the Jongin that always comes to Baek’s work right?” Kyungsoo asked. Jongin’s heart skipped a beat, he talks about me? He thought.

 

Sehun noticed how happy Jongin looked and he felt his stomach clench, a bit disappointed that Baekhyun didn’t tell them about him.

 

“Yeah I am.”

 

“And you’re his childhood friend right? What was he like as a kid? Was he as weird and loud?” Jongdae asked Sehun. The blonde failed to restrained the smile that appeared on his face.

 

“YAH! I am not weird or loud!” Baekhyun exclaimed.

 

“Says the one that just shouted in the middle of a mall food court.” Kyungsoo playfully rolled his eyes.

 

“Anyway, what are you guys doing here?” Baekhyun asked.

 

“We’re gonna go watch that new Ghostbusters movie, and it’s actually gonna start soon so we should get going.” Jongin said, checking the time on his phone.

 

“Oh alright then, see you guys later? Kyungsoo, Jongdae, say goodbye to the nice young men.”

 

“Okay mom, it was nice to meet you guys.” Kyungsoo said.

 

“Yeah it was nice to meet Baekhyun’s other friends, I’m surprised he has any since he’s such a dork.” Jongdae said.  

 

“Am not.”

 

Sehun and Jongin laughed and bid the three farewell, then walked to the theater to catch their movie.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“Hey, you wanna sleepover Sunday night?” Jongin asked.

 

“Hmmm, sure. Is Sehun coming too?” Baekhyun asked as he scanned the chip bags.

 

The younger felt slightly jealous that the older mentioned Sehun, but immediately felt guilty because Sehun was his best friend.

 

“No I asked him already and he said has a date with Yixing.”

 

“Oh okay, well it sounds fun. I can’t wait! I have to tutor some people in the afternoon so I’ll probably come at night. You better not try to kill me in my sleep or else I’ll come back and haunt you.”

 

“I’ll try not to.” The taller joked, trying to hide his excitement. This was the first time that he was going to be spending time with the other alone and outside of the store.

 

During the days leading up to Sunday, he was racking his brain for ideas on what they could do all night.

 

He rented multiple movies for the other to pick from and he brought out all his video games just in case Baekhyun wanted to play something.

 

He texted Baekhyun and asked if there was anything specific he wanted to do and the elder had said they should play League of Legends.

 

Jongin told him that he had never played before, the other replied saying that he would teach him everything he knew. The younger told Baekhyun to come around eight at night and on Sunday night, Jongin heard a knock at as his at precisely 7:59pm.

 

He opened the door, revealing Baekhyun already in his pyjamas. He was wearing a large grey sweatshirt with plaid blue pyjama pants, his glasses hanging low on his nose, which he pushed up as he was talking.

 

“Hey Jongin, am I on time?” Baekhyun asked with his signature smile.

 

"You didn’t have to come at exactly eight, you know.” Jongin chuckled, moving aside to let the elder in.

 

“I know, I just thought it would be fun to challenge myself.” Baekhyun cutely waddled into the apartment and set his pillow and backpack down.

 

“You wanna watch a movie first? I rented a bunch of different ones, I wasn’t sure what genre you liked the best.”

 

“I like anything pretty much, I feel like watching a comedy tonight though, is that okay?” Jongin nodded and showed him the pile of movies he had.

 

“Oh, Bridesmaids! I love this movie!” He joyfully held the DVD up.

 

“I haven’t seen it, let’s watch it then.” Baekhyun handed him the disc to put into the DVD player and he told Jongin that he could pick the next movie.

 

They sat on the carpet eating popcorn and candy, often laughing together during the funny scenes of the movie. Every time there was upcoming funny scene, the elder would always prepare Jongin for it, saying how he always laughs at that part.

 

During the movie Jongin had stolen glances at the other, not knowing whether to watch the movie or Baekhyun because the way he laughed and smiled made Jongin feel as if he could watch him forever.s

 

When the movie was over, it was Jongin’s turn to pick a movie. He chose the movie Whiplash and by midnight, the elder had fallen asleep. The younger felt a weight on his shoulder and looked over to see Baekhyun leaning on his shoulder, eyes closed, chest heaving up and down, and his mouth slightly agape.

 

Jongin almost melted at the sight, their faces were so close that if he leaned down just a few more inches their lips would’ve touched. He smiled as looked over the elder’s features, he swallowed hard when he set eyes on Baekhyun’s parted lips.

 

He carefully gathered up the other’s small frame into his arms and gently set him down on the couch, slowly pulling his arms out from under him, not wanting to wake him up.

 

He draped a blanket over Baekhyun’s body and sat down on the floor next to him. He watched the other’s peacefully sleeping face and reached over to move a strand of hair that was in his eyes.

 

His eyes wandered down to Baekhyun’s pink lips, his heart was thumping so hard in chest he was worried it wake the other up. He slowly leaned down, his nose barely touching Baekhyun’s.

 

His tongue darted out to lips about to peck the other on the lips when his phone suddenly vibrated, he backed away so fast he almost fell back. He whispered a curse before pulling his phone out of his back pocket to see who had texted him.

 

_SeBrat:  How’s it going???_

_To SeBrat: it’s goin fine he fell asleep while we were watchin a movie_

_Sebrat: did anything happen? ;)_

_To SeBrat: nope...how was your date?_

_SeBrat:  good i just got back_

_To SeBrat: thats good tell me about it tmrw, gonna go sleep ttyl brat_

_SeBrat: :(_

 

Jongin quietly let a chuckle as he put his phone down. He glanced at Baekhyun one more time and then grabbed a pillow and blanket to sleep on the floor.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Sehun was lying in bed as he stared at the texts on his phone. He figured Jongin wouldn't reply after that so he reached over and set the phone on the nightstand.

 

He stared at the ceiling and sighed, he felt bad that he was somewhat relieved when Jongin said that nothing had happened. He groaned and turned over to scream into his pillow.

 

Sehun was so frustrated, he didn’t know he was feeling like this. He really liked Yixing, he’s liked him ever since the first day of college when he saw him walking onto campus.

 

But now that Baekhyun was in his life again, even if he was happy with his boyfriend, he couldn’t stop thinking about the elder. He decided that he couldn’t keep having those feelings, it wasn’t fair to Yixing who’s been nothing but trusting.

 

It wasn’t fair to his best friend either, Jongn would feel so betrayed if he found out. He sighed and pulled the covers over his face, _starting tomorrow you cannot think about Baekhyun._


	7. Unexpected Confession

It was a Thursday night and three young men were once again in Jongin’s living room doing homework, or at least trying to.

 

They were constantly getting distracted by each other’s random outbursts and their phones.

 

“Kris just texted, he said he’s having a ‘small get together’ on Sunday and asked if we’re in.” Sehun said. Jongin looked up from his laptop and quirked an eyebrow.

 

“Small get together my ass...but yeah I guess I’m in. Baek you wanna come?”

 

The elder put his textbook down and looked at him. “Is Kris gonna be okay with it?”

 

Both Sehun and Jongin nodded. “Yeah he won’t mind, plus he’s met you already so.” The blonde added.  

 

“Sure, why not.”

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

The get together at Kris’ house wasn’t so small as Baekhyun expected but it was definitely smaller than his party he went to last time. He recognized Luhan, Tao, and Chanyeol, but there were a few other people that he didn’t know.

 

There were five girls and one other guy he didn't recognize, making it a total of fourteen people.

 

He felt a lot more comfortable since there wasn’t a house full of drunk people he didn’t know, though Kris and Chanyeol still made him a little nervous since they were both so tall and intimidating.

 

They had gotten to Kris’ house at about ten at night and it was now eleven. The hour was spent socializing and drinking and once they all had a couple drinks, a certain tall young man with large ears suggested that played a game to keep the night interesting.

 

“Let’s play spin the bottle.” Chanyeol  smirked, glancing Baekhyun who was too distracted talking to Yixing to notice.

 

Jongin scoffed and rolled his eyes, anger bubbling up inside him. He could tell that Baekhyun was too oblivious and naive to realize that Chanyeol was obviously trying to hook up with him all night.

 

Chanyeol tried to initiate a conversation with the elder multiple times and since Baekhyun was such a friendly person, he would always fall right into the other’s trap.

 

Every time Chanyeol was about to try to put an arm around Baekhyun’s shoulder or sneak a hand around his waist, Jongin would think of an excuse to try to Baekhyun away from the other.

 

“Let’s not. What are we, 13?” Jongin frowned, leaning back on the couch.

 

Sehun agreed with him when he realized that Chanyeol was obviously just trying to get an excuse to kiss Baekhyun. He didn’t want Jongin to get upset and as much as he didn’t want to admit it, something inside him didn’t want Chanyeol to kiss Baekhyun either.

 

The entire night Chanyeol had been trying to make a move on the elder and it pissed him off. He told himself that it was because he didn’t want an asshole like him to touch his childhood friend and that Baekhyun was Jongin’s.

 

“Come on guys, it’ll be fun. It’s just a harmless game of spin the bottle.” Yixing tried to convince the two because everyone else seemed to want to play and he didn’t want anyone to feel left out.

 

Sehun gave in with a sigh when Yixing smiled up at him sweetly. Jongin looked over to Baekhyun to make sure he was feeling comfortable and the other gave him a reassuring smile and nodded.

 

“Fine.” Jongin crossed his arms, finally giving in, Chanyeol and a few others cheered.

 

Everyone got into a big circle and Chanyeol set the bottle in the middle. “Who wants to go first?”

 

Everyone looked around and Kris leaned in to spin the bottle. “I will since it’s my house.” He spun it hard and they watched curiously to see who it would land on.

 

It slowed down and landed on a girl name named Hwasa who eagerly got up to kiss him. Baekhyun had actually never played this game before, only ever hearing about from others, and was surprised to see that the kiss between the two was not just a peck.

 

The two moved their mouths against each other’s sloppily for a few seconds before Tao pulled Kris back, telling him to get a room.

 

Baekhyun felt his face heat up and he suddenly felt a bit nervous at the thought of the bottle landing on him. “Me next!” Luhan excitedly jumped up to grab the bottle before spinning it.

 

It landed on a girl named Eunji and when she got up to kiss him, Luhan grabbed the back of her neck, smashing their lips together.

 

Baekhyun’s eyes widened and he looked around to see if anyone else was shocked but it seemed as if everyone was already use to the sight in front of him so he just bit his lip and looked back at the two, unaware of a certain someone watching at him.

 

Chanyeol had been watching the other the entire game and found it amusing that he kept blushing when he saw how heated the kisses were. He’s always liked the innocent type and he made it his mission to kiss Baekhyun that night.

 

Two more rounds go by and in those rounds, Yixing had to kiss a boy named Minseok, which Sehun was reluctant to let him do, and Jongin had to kiss a girl named Yuri, much to his disappointment because he was hoping it would land on Baekhyun.  

 

“My turn.” Chanyeol smirked.

 

Both Sehun and Jongin straightened up and watched closely as he spun the bottle, clearly trying to make it land on Baekhyun who was sitting across from him.

 

Jongin clenched his fists when it landed on Baekhyun, the shorter’s eyes widened when he saw that it landed on him. Chanyeol smiled smugly and licked his lips as he ran his hand through his silver locks.

 

Baekhyun timidly crawled toward Chanyeol, the taller towering over him even when they’re both on their knees. The shorter gave him a nervous smile trying to avoid eye contact, Chanyeol’s tongue darted out to wet his lips again before leaning down to capture the other’s lips in a kiss.

 

Baekhyun tried to keep his mouth closed, however Chanyeol had different plans when he gently bit down on the elder’s bottom lip. The other gasped, slightly parting his lips and the taller took advantage of that by slipping his tongue into his mouth.

 

Jongin was fuming, his knuckles turning white from clenching his fists so hard. He was prepared to go rip Chanyeol off of Baekhyun but his thoughts were interrupted when Luhan clapped his hands and told them that the time was up.

 

Chanyeol reluctantly pulled away and glared at his friend. “There’s no time limit!” He whined.

 

“Yeah but we didn’t want to watch you eat the poor boy’s face so sit down.” Luhan scoffed.

 

Chanyeol sat back down and crossed his arms, muttering something about Luhan ruining the fun. Baekhyun sat back down next to Jongin and wiped his lips with the back of his head, his face flushed.

 

“Are you okay?” Jongin whispered in his ear. Baekhyun nodded and flashed him a smile.

 

Sehun glanced at Baekhyun, making sure he was okay. During the two’s kiss Sehun had been clenching his jaw in anger, impatiently tapping his fingers on his leg.  

 

Yixing noticed his boyfriend’s restlessness and gave him a quick squeeze on the arm to make sure he was okay. Sehun quickly nodded and gave him a smile before shifting his attention back to the two in the middle of the circle.

 

He didn’t know if he was mad because Jongin was right there watching or if he just didn’t like Chanyeol kissing Baekhyun. Either way, he was definitely not okay with it and was relieved when Luhan had stopped them.

 

“Okay, let’s stop I’m getting bored. Let’s watch a scary movie or something.” Sehun proposed, not wanting to see Baekhyun or his boyfriend kiss anyone else.

 

“You’re only mad because you didn’t get to kiss anyone.” Chanyeol smirked.

 

“Why would I be mad when I have a boyfriend I can kiss anytime, idiot.” Yixing giggled and rested his head onto his boyfriend’s shoulder.

 

“Yeah let's watch a movie, I’m getting bored too. No horror though, you guys know I can’t handle that stuff!” Tao whined.

 

Everyone laughed at him and Kris went into his room to find some movies they could watch. The circle was broken up and everybody scattered themselves throughout the living in front of the TV. Baekhyun stayed beside Jongin and Jongin looked down at the other.

 

“Are you sure you’re okay? Sorry you had to play that, my friends are really dumb and hormonal.”

 

Baekhyun shook his head and gave him a reassuring smile and a cute thumbs up. “I’m fine,really. I was just surprised that’s all. I’ve never played that before.”

 

“That uhm- wasn’t your first kiss right?” Jongin asked.

 

Baekhyun giggled and shook his head, the younger subtly sighed in relief. “You want something to drink before the movie starts?” He asked.

 

The elder nodded and they both got up to walk to the kitchen, Chanyeol noticed right away and excused himself from the girl he was talking to.

 

He followed them to the kitchen and overheard Jongin say he was going to the bathroom, Chanyeol saw the chance to finally able to be alone with Baekhyun and entered the room.

 

“Hey Baek, that was probably your first time playing spin the bottle huh? Did you have fun?” He winked.

 

“Oh uh y-yeah. How did you know?” The shorter awkwardly laughed.

 

“I could tell by the way you were reacting while watching everyone kiss. The way you blushed was really cute.” Chanyeol said, his low, deep voice slightly frightening the other.

 

Baekhyun simply laughed and tried to avoid the taller’s intense stare.

 

“Maybe we could go out sometime, I’d really like to spend time with you without all these people here…” Chanyeol stepped closer to the boy.

 

Baekhyun was about to reply when he suddenly felt a pair of arms wrap around his shoulders, pulling him back into a firm chest. He let out a little gasp as his back made contact with the other’s warm body.

 

“He’s taken, Park.” Jongin looked at him with a smug smile, anger evident in his eyes.

 

“Really. You guys? Since when?” Chanyeol scoffed.

 

“A couple weeks ago, so I’d appreciate if you stopped trying to hit on him. You already got to kiss him and that’s as far as I’m willing to let you go.”

 

He grabbed Baekhyun by the hand and led him back into the living the room, leaving an annoyed Chanyeol behind.

 

“Sorry,” Jongin said as he let go the elder’s hand, “You okay?”

 

“Yeah, thanks. I wasn’t sure what I was gonna say…”

 

Jongin gave him a comforting smile and they both sat back down on the carpet, getting ready to watch the movie.

 

Sehun shot Jongin a worried look and mouthed ‘Is everything okay?’ Jongin nodded and they both relaxed as they sat back to watch the movie.

 

 

~~~  
  


 

It was now three weeks into November and three weeks since that night at Kris’ house. Sehun had been spending a lot of his free time with Jongin and Baekhyun since Yixing was always busy.

 

He was doing a fine job of trying to ignore his feelings for his childhood friend but it wasn’t easy especially since he rarely saw his boyfriend. Every time he asked Yixing to go out, the other would always have something to do.

 

He had told Sehun that he was really busy with school and didn’t have any free time, Sehun figured it was because midterms were coming up so he just brushed it off.

 

What he didn’t expect was for Yixing to show up at his door one night. “Hey babe.” Sehun smiled cheerfully at his boyfriend, leaning down to give him a kiss.

 

Yixing nervously smiled and kiss him back, he walked into the apartment and stood in the middle of the living room. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? I would’ve cleaned up the place.” Sehun said as he started picking up magazines and loose papers from the ground.

 

When he didn’t receive a reply he stopped what he was doing and looked up at his boyfriend. “Hey, babe are you okay? What’s wrong?”

 

He walked to the other and turned him around so that they were facing each other. His heart immediately dropped when he looked down into tear filled eyes.

 

“Hey...What’s wrong?” The blonde pulled Yixing’s head into the crook of his neck as he hugged him close.

 

Sehun could hear little sniffles coming from the other and felt the tears dampen his t-shirt. He pulled away and  grabbed his hand, trying to pull him over to sit on the couch.

 

Yixing shook his head and Sehun furrowed his brows.

 

“S-Sehun, I’m so s-sorry.” He sniffled.

 

“Ssh babe, for what?”

 

The taller stroked the back of his head comfortingly. The other continued sniffling, trying to speak but choked on his words.

 

“I-I’ve been...” Sehun was scared and confused, his heart was beating so fast, he thought it was going to jump out of his chest.

 

“You’ve been what?”

 

Yixing took a deep, shaky breath before choking out the words, “I’ve b-been c-cheating on you.”

 

 

 


	8. Realization

"Y-You're joking right?" Sehun asked, trying to wrap his head around what he just heard. Yixing broke down even more as he shook his

head.

 

You must be joking, you'd never do that to me. I know you Yixing, you'd never do that.” "I-I'm so s-sorry Sehun." Yixing cried , trying to reach for the other only to him back away from his touch.

 

Sehun felt like throwing up, the room felt like it was spinning, his head was pounding and he couldn't breathe. "Who is it?" He asked, his fists clenching tightly.

 

When he didn't receive an answer, he repeated himself raising his voice this time. Yixing flinched and softly said, "M-Minseok."

 

It was barely audible but the other heard him. Sehun closed his eyes, trying to keep in the tears that were threatening to fall.

 

"For how long?" He asked with his teeth gritted.

 

"S-Since the day after the night at Kris’s house..." Yixing said, his head hanging low in shame.

 

"That's why you kept blowing me off right? It wasn't because of school." He chuckled darkly, the mocking hostility evident in his voice. Yixing nodded, his sobs slowly decreasing.

 

"Why?" Sehun’s voice was low and unforgiving, his head hanging low as he stared at his fists.  

 

"W-Why?" Yixing repeated, confused.

 

"Why did you do it?" Sehun asked. He looked up to look at the other in the eyes, Yixing felt a wave of guilt smash over him as he saw the hurt in Sehun’s eyes.

 

"I know how you feel about B-Baekhyun. I see how happy you look when you're texting him and I saw the way looked at him that night at Kris' house when he was kissing Chanyeol." Sehun tried to speak but the words were caught in his throat, he blinked back the tears as he listened to the other.

 

"I-I was just really upset and hurt and when I ran into Minseok the next day, w-we went back to his house and...it j-just happened."

 

Sehun felt as someone punched him in the chest, it was getting hard for him to breathe, all he wanted to do was crawl in bed and sleep for months.

 

He felt so hurt, all this time he was trying to push away his feelings because he didn’t want to hurt Yixing, because he was important to him, and the whole time Yixing had been off sleeping with another guy.

 

He had heard how much it hurts to have someone cheat on you, but experiencing it firsthand was a different story, the pain was something he’d never want to feel again.

 

"Nothing's going on with me Baekhyun I had some feelings for him, but I pushed them away because of you! Because I care about you! I would never do anything to hurt you. But I guess you didn’t feel the same about me." Tears continued to stream down Yixing’s face as he listened to Sehun, each word piercing through his heart like knives.

 

"I-I know Sehun,I'm sorry. It was suppose to be a one time thing but he kept calling me and I was too scared to see you and-" Sehun shook his head and looked away from Yixing, not be able to look at his face any longer.

 

"Stop, I don't want to hear it anymore. Just leave, please."  Sehun sighed tiredly, opening the door for the other. Yixing sadly nodded, slowly walking out the door, he stopped in the doorway and turned around to face the taller.

 

"I'm really sorry, Sehun." Yixing whispered.

 

A tear rolled down Sehun’s cheek, he took a deep breath before looking Yixing in the eyes.

 

"I know." Sehun said, closing the door.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

Sehun had been hiding out in his apartment for a week. He didn't leave for his classes, instead getting the notes and assignments from classmates.

 

Somehow word had spread about the breakup and Baekhyun and Jongin had been trying to get ahold of him constantly. He just wasn’t ready to talk to anyone yet.

 

When Sehun didn't answer any of their calls or texts, they tried going to his apartment and banged on the door but he never opened it.

 

He felt bad for ignoring them, especially Jongin, he was his best friend and Sehun knew Jongin was worried about him but he just couldn’t bring himself to talk about it.

 

Through the duration of the week, all Sehun did was sleep, eat, and think about what Yixing had said. After days of reflection, he realized that Yixing wasn’t the only at fault.

 

Sehun admitted that he had been a little distant after he reunited with Baekhyun. No matter how hard he tried to deny it, he liked Baekhyun, a lot.

 

He came to realize that he liked him the entire time, ever since they were kids and ever since the party. From when they were kids and it was just an innocent crush, to now when it was more than just puppy love.

 

He really liked Yixing, but he didn’t love him, if he did then he probably wouldn’t have fallen for Baekhyun so quickly.

 

He was still hurt that Yixing had hurt him like that, because he really did care about him, even if it wasn’t love yet.

 

Even though he was still hurt, he was somewhat glad that this helped him realize his feelings for his childhood friend, however even if one obstacle was now out of the way, another one was still there.

 

The fact that his best friend liked the same guy he did.

 

 

~~~

 

 

  
Jongin was beyond worried about his best friend. Sehun had never isolated himself like this from him before. The other wouldn’t reply to any of his texts or open the door when he came to see him.

Jongin asked all of Sehun’s friends and classmates if anyone had heard from him and one guy said that he had been sending him notes through text and that he come back to school a week ago.

 

Jongin was relieved to hear that at least Sehun was alive but he was confused and upset at why Sehun was avoiding him.

Jongin knew the other’s schedule and that night, he waited outside his door knowing he was going to come back from his part-time job at the coffee shop across the street from the library they always go to.

About fifteen minutes laters, Sehun finally came home and froze when he saw the other sitting outside his apartment. He swallowed hard when they made eye contact, the other obviously looking upset, and made his way to the door.

“Hey.” The blonde said, walking past his friend to unlock the door.

“Hey? You’ve been ignoring and avoiding me for two weeks and that’s you can say?” Jongin angrily asked as he got up from the ground and followed Sehun into the apartment.

The room was silent until Jongin slammed the door closed. “Do you know how worried I’ve been? I get that you needed space but one of your friends said you came back a fucking week ago. Why didn’t you call me?  At least text me and tell me you’re alive and okay. You never even texted or called once!”

Sehun sighed, rubbing his temples with his hand. “I know, I know. I’m really sorry. I just- I just wasn’t ready to talk about it. I really am sorry, Jongin.”  

Jongin sighed and closed his eyes, his rage slowly leaving his body, he could never stay mad at his best friend.

“Whatever, just- just don’t do that again. You know I’ll always understand whatever’s going on so if you’re not ready to talk then just tell me, I just need to know you’re alive. I was really worried and so was Baekhyun. How are you feeling?” Jongin asked, sitting next to the blonde on the couch.

“Better. A lot better than two weeks ago.”

“What happened? I heard rumors but I didn’t want to believe anything until I heard it from you.”

Sehun drearily chuckled, “He was cheating on me with Minseok for like three weeks.”

Jongin felt anger rise up inside him, he couldn’t believe Yixing would do something like this to Sehun. He also felt crying because it hurt him to see Sehun like this, he knew how much the other liked Yixing and if anyone deserves happiness it was Sehun.

“Sehun, I’m so sorry. You seriously don’t deserve any of this, he didn’t deserve you.” He patted the blonde on the back and Sehun gave him a small smile.

“It’s okay, I’ve been feeling a lot better lately.” “Why didn’t you text me or Baekhyun when you came back a week ago? I kept waiting for you in class but you never showed up, I figured you just weren’t showing up to school but then that guy said you were going to your other classes.” Jongin asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve just been busy, I guess.” Sehun shrugged.

Jongin raised his eyebrows at him.  “Dude you’re a horrible liar, I’ve known you since middle school remember? Why have you been avoiding us? Come on Sehun I know you, what’s going on?”

Sehun got up and walked to the kitchen, pouring himself a glass of water. He opened the fridge and leaned down to look inside. “Do you want anything to drink?”

Jongin walked to the fridge and closed the door, leaning on it with his arms crossed. “No, what I want is for you to tell me what’s going on.” He said.

“Nothing, really.” Sehun simply shrugged.

“Dude, we’re best friends. You’re like my brother, you know I won’t judge you or anything.”

“I know, I just- I don’t want you to be mad and ruin our friendship.” The blonde sighed, running his hand through his hair.

“Okaay... now you’re scaring me. You know that could never happen, whatever it is I’ll understand.”

“Fine. I- I don’t even know how to say this,” he groaned, facepalming himself, “Before you freak, just know that I would never do anything to hurt you and that I was never planning to do anything.”

Jongin furrowed his brows, not knowing what the other was talking about. “What do you mean?”

Sehun sighed before nervously replying.

“I- I think I like Baekhyun.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg sorry i made yixing a cheater it hurt my heart but i had to do it lmao


	9. All's Fair In Love & War

The room was painfully silent for a few seconds and Jongin looked like a child that just found out Santa wasn’t real.

 

“What?” He asked, shock evident on his face. Jongin did not see this coming at all, he didn’t know what he was expecting but nowhere in his mind was he thinking that his best friend liked the same guy did.

 

“I really don’t think you need to hear it again, Jongin.” His said, his voice laced with apprehension.

 

“Wait, are you fucking with me or?” Jongin narrowed his eyes at the other.

 

“I really wish I was...I’m really sorry Jongin, I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t want things to be weird between us and I wasn’t going to try to make a move on him or anything anyway.” Sehun nervously rambled.

 

He stared at Jongin’s face, trying to gauge his reaction. Sehun was so anxious he felt like he was going to throw up right there on the kitchen floor.

 

He was fully prepared for Jongin to blow up and call him a backstabber, although he was hoping that was the worst case scenario and that Jongin wouldn’t react like that because he really did not want to lose his best friend of so many years.

 

“A-Are you mad at me? I really am sorry, Jongin. I didn’t mean to, it just happened. I don’t know how but it did. I promise I won’t try anything-”

 

“No I’m not mad, I just- I just don’t how to react.” Jongin interjected . Of course he was upset, Sehun knew how much he liked Baekhyun and it stung a little to find out that he still liked him even after he knew, but he also knew that Sehun would never try to hurt him intentionally.

 

“Really? You’re not mad? At all?” Sehun eyed him skeptically.

 

“Okay, maybe I’m a _little_ mad but,” Jongin sighed, “you’re my best friend and I know you wouldn’t try to do anything like that purpose. I just need time to think.”

 

He pushed himself off of the kitchen counter and headed toward the door before Sehun could have time to react. Sehun’s heart clenched, the guilt eating him alive.

 

Even though Jongin said he was only a little mad, Sehun knew that wasn’t true, of course he was upset! He had poured his heart to Sehun about how he felt about Baekhyun and now he found out that the entire time Sehun was feeling the same about him.

 

The blonde quickly followed him and watched as he gathered his belongings. Before he walked out the door Sehun stopped him, grabbing his arm.

 

“Wait Jongin. I’m really, really sorry.”

 

Jongin flashed him a small, tired smile. “I know, Sehun. I don’t hate you or anything, I just need time to think.”

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

That night when Jongin came home, all he wanted to do was scream into his pillow. “Why does this all have to be so complicated!” He groaned loudly as he fell back onto his bed.

 

He just wanted to be with Baekhyun, but he also wanted Sehun to be happy. He didn’t know what to do, he was upset that Sehun liked Baekhyun even though Jongin had told him about him first, even though technically Sehun met him first because they were childhood friends.

 

 _It just isn’t fair_ , he thought, _why did we have to fall for the same guy?_ He felt like crying, he was so frustrated and overwhelmed, he just wanted to see Baekhyun.

 

All Jongin wanted to do was him in his arms and never let him go. A part of him wanted to selfish and have Baekhyun all to himself since he was the one that liked him first.

 

However, the other part of him didn’t want Sehun to have to ignore all his feelings and have to watch him and Baekhyun every day if they were to start dating.

 

After thinking long and hard, he pulled out his phone and looked through contacts, clicking on Baekhyun’s number to send him a text.

 

_To Baekhyun: hey_

 

Jongin’s heart skipped a beat when Baekhyun replied right away.

 

_Baekhyun: hello !!!!!!_

 

He tapped his fingers against his phone, not sure of what to say.

 

_To Baekhyun: i talked to sehun today_

_Baekhyun: really???? He still hasnt texted me back_

_Baekhyun: is he ok?????????_

 

_To Baekhyun: yeah he’s fine he’ll prob text you later, i just left his house like 10 mins ago_

_Baekhyun:  i hope so_

 

Jongin’s heart hurt a little after reading his response even though he knew it was obviously normal for the elder to be worried about Sehun just he had been. He took a deep breath, finally deciding on what he’s going to do and texted Sehun.

 

_To SeBrat: hey_

_SeBrat: hey_

_SeBrat: do you hate me_

_To SeBrat: ofc not you idiot i could never hate you_

_To SeBrat: you know unless you killed my family or smth_

_SeBrat: good bc who else’s house would i go to for food when i dont have any_

_To SeBrat: -___-_

 

Jongin softly laughed at his friend’s stupidity, then he sighed and hesitated before typing in the next text.

 

_To SeBrat: can i ask you a question_

 

The other took a bit longer to reply this time.

 

_SeBrat: yeah_

 

Jongin thought about it for a minute before replying.

 

_To SeBrat: how much do you like him?_

 

This time Sehun took a lot longer to reply, Jongin was scared to see what he was say and he knew Sehun was scared to tell him.

 

_SeBrat: a lot_

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

Sehun came over the next day after Jongin had told him he needed to talk to him in person. His palms were sweating on the way up in the elevator, anxious of what the other was going to say.

 

Once he got to Jongin’s apartment number he stopped himself before knocking, just staring at the door. He didn’t know if he was ready to hear what Jongin was about to say, he didn’t know if it was going to be good or bad,  he just wasn’t ready to hear it.

 

He snapped out of his daze and slowly brought his hand up to knock on the door. A few seconds later Jongin opened it and let him in, they both sat on the couch in silence. Sehun cleared his throat, breaking the silence.

 

“Sooo…” He said, awkwardly looking around the room. “I..I think we should both go for it.” Jongin blurted. Sehun immediately snapped his head toward him.

 

“What?”

 

“You heard me, I think we should both try go to for it…” Jongin declared.

 

“Jongin, what are you even talking about? I told you it’s fine, you liked him first and I have no right to come in like this so really don’t worry about me.” Sehun said as he shook his head.

 

“No I’m serious. I know I like him a lot, but I know you really like him too...And you guys were childhood friends so there must be some kind of connection there. I don’t want you to lose out on something just because of me. Who knows, he might not even like me.” Jongin explained.

 

He felt as if this was the only way to solve it, if they both went for it and whoever Baekhyun liked the other would accept it and move on.

 

As much as it hurt him and as much he wanted to be selfish, he just couldn’t bring himself to do that to Sehun, he cared too much about him and he wanted him to have a fair shot to find happiness.

 

Even if it meant he couldn’t be with Baekhyun.

 

“Jongin...You really don’t have to do this, it’s not fair to you.”

 

Jongin shook his head, “If Baekhyun did happen like you back...I don’t want you miss out on something special just because of me. Dude, you’re like my brother, no matter what, we’ll always stick together. Even if one of us ends up with Baek and the other doesn’t, okay?”

 

Sehun looked at the other in the eyes, then smiled as he jumped onto him, giving him a big bear hug.

 

“Yah get off me you brat, I can’t breathe!” Jongin laughed but hugged him back nonetheless.

 

“So you’re actually serious about us both going for it?”

 

“Yeah, I guess we’ll just see who he likes. Maybe he doesn’t even like either of us, who knows.”

 

“Are you sure wanna do this? My game has obviously gotten better than yours over the year…” The blonde teasingly smirked. Jongin playfully punched him on the arm, eliciting a childish whine from the other.

 

“Yah I have not lost my game, I got Baekhyun’s number didn’t I? And you still haven’t given me the five bucks you owe me!”

 

He grabbed Sehun’s head, putting him in a chokehold as he ruffled up his hair. “Okay, Okay! I’ll treat you to lunch, sounds fair?” Sehun said as he ran his fingers through his hair, straightening it out. “Deal.” Jongin grinned.

 

They ended up going to Jongin’s favorite restaurant that sold fried chicken. Sehun paid for both of their meals and they sat down at a table, not waiting long until they started devouring their food.

 

“You should probably text Baekhyun back, by the way. He’s really worried about you.” Jongin said after taking a bite out of the chicken leg he was holding.

 

“Gross, stop talking with your mouth full,” Sehun grimaced, “But yeah, I probably should huh. I feel bad.”

 

“You should, you idiot. We were both worried sick!”

 

“I already said I was sorry!” Sehun whined. “Tell that to Baekhyun, brat.”

 

After getting ready to go to bed, Sehun was lying in bed staring at his phone. He hesitantly pressed on Baekhyun’s contact and typed in a message.

 

_To Baek Hyung: Hey hyung_

 

He received a reply almost immediately.

 

_Baek Hyung: SEHUN WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN !!!_

 

_To Baek Hyung: sorry hyung i just didnt feel like talkin to anyone_

_Baek Hyung: WE WERE REALLY WORRIED ABOUT YOU_

 

Sehun bit his lip, he could feel the guilt washing over him all over again.

 

_To Baek Hyung: I know i know im really sorry_

_Baek Hyung: fine i forgive you_

_Baek Hyung: only bc i know jongin prob yelled at you already_

_Baek Hyung: are you ok?_

_Baek Hyung: how are you feeling?_

_Baek Hyung: do you need me to beat anyone up_

 

He chortled, finding it funny how Baekhyun always sent him multiple short texts instead of putting them all in one text.  

 

_To Baek Hyung: i’m okay, i feel a lot better now_

_To Baek Hyung: and i doubt youd be able to beat anyone up hyung_

_Baek Hyung: good!!!!!! But hey !!!!!_

_Baek Hyung: i am pretty strong fyi_

_Baek Hyung: Are you gonna start coming over to jongin’s house again I miss you_

 

His breath hitched when he read the last part of the other’s text and  quickly texted back.

 

_To Baek Hyung: really ?_

_Baek Hyung: of course i do i havent seen or heard from you in like weeks !!!!!!_

_To Baek Hyung: sorry… ill prob sleep over this weekend if you can come over_

_Baek Hyung: really?! Ill ask jongin if i can come over too_

_Baek Hyung: so i can beat you up for ignoring us for 2 weeks!!!!_

_To Baek Hyung: see you there hyung ;p_

 

Sehun closed his eyes as he drifted off to sleep with a smile, he was probably going to dream about a certain boy that night.


	10. Miracles in December

Winter was Sehun’s least favorite time of the year, however he decided to reconsider his opinion when he learned that it was Baekhyun’s favorite season.

 

They had met up last week at Jongin’s house after not seeing each other for three weeks and Baekhyun nearly tackled Sehun when jumping into his arms to hug him.

 

The younger happily accepted the hug; reluctantly letting go when the elder pulled away to yell at him for ignoring him and Jongin for so long.

 

They slept over and the night was spent watching movies, Baekhyun was talking excitedly throughout all of them. The elder was sandwiched between the two best friends the entire night and when it was time to go to sleep, they all slept together on the living room floor.

 

The three of them hadn’t seen other since then; Jongin was visiting his family back in Suncheon for winter break and both Sehun and Baekhyun were busy with their jobs. Sehun was still bitter that his shifts got switched around, because now he worked on the days that Baekhyun was free so they never had time to see each other. The younger would always whine over text, telling the elder to come visit him at work.

 

It’s was Thursday afternoon in December and Sehun’s feet were sore from standing up all day.

 

He had been working since ten in the morning and it was now three in the afternoon. People had been coming in and out all day buying coffee and hot chocolate; he didn’t have a chance to sit down the entire time except for his lunch break at noon.

 

He checked the clock and sighed when he saw that it was only three and he didn’t get off work until six. He had taken on some extra hours in order to make more money to buy Christmas gifts for his friends and family. He was wiping the counter with a rag when he heard the bell on door ring, meaning someone had entered the shop.

 

“Hello, welco-” His breath hitched when he saw Baekhyun standing there smiling at him.

 

“H-Hyung? What are you doing here?” Sehun stuttered, still in shock that the elder paid him a surprise visit. His face suddenly felt a lot warmer and it wasn’t because of the heater.

 

The elder playfully frowned as he sat down on one of the stools at the counter. “Yah is that any way to talk to a customer?! And besides, you’re the one always telling me to come visit you at work!”

 

“I just wasn’t expecting you, why didn’t you tell me you were coming?”

 

“Cause I wanted to surprise you, silly.” The younger’s attempt at restraining his smile were futile; he felt those butterflies in his stomach he felt every time he saw the elder.

 

“Soooo,” Baekhyun spun around on his stool, “what’s good here Sehunnie?”

 

“Hmm...the hot chocolate’s been pretty popular, but I can’t tell if it’s just because of the cold weather or what.”

 

“I’ll take a hot chocolate then.” Sehun nodded and went off to the kitchen to personally make the drink, being extra careful not to mess anything up.

 

After he finished the drink, he brought it to Baekhyun, who excitedly accepted the drink and almost spilled it on himself. Baekhyun blew on it before taking a small sip and dramatically exhaling in content.

 

“Ah so warm! Don’t you just love winter?” His glasses were fogging up from the steam of the hot beverage; Sehun noticed the frames were brown today.

 

“Not really. I like spring and summer more, the snow is just so inconvenient and I hate being cold.”

 

“What! How can you not like winter! That’s ridiculous! It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The snow is so pretty and the holiday season is just so happy. I can’t believe you!” Baekhyun exclaimed, cutely banging his fists on the table.

 

Sehun laughed, he had always thought the elder’s dramatic outbursts were adorable. “Let’s go buy a Christmas tree after you get off from work.”

 

“A Christmas tree? For what?” The younger quirking a brow. “For Christmas, obviously. I want one for my apartment and you’re going to help me!”

 

“Who said I’d wanna help?” Sehun teased.

 

“I’m your special hyung, of course you’d wanna help.”

 

“You are pretty special.” The younger muttered under his breath.

 

“What was that?” Baekhyun tilted his head sideways, looking like a puppy.

 

“Nothing. Fine, I guess I’ll help you...You have to get me a present though.” He crossed his arms as he leaned back on the counter and looked at the other.

 

“I was already planning on getting you a present anyway.” Baekhyun shrugged.

 

Sehun felt his heart skip a beat, he wasn’t expecting that reply. “Really?”

 

“Of course, why wouldn’t I get my childhood best friend a Christmas present?”

 

Sehun was at a lost for words at the other’s warm smile.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“So, which one do you want?” Sehun asked, wandering through the lot of trees.

 

“Sehun-ah, look at how pretty all the trees look with the snow on them!” The elder stared in awe down the rows of green.  

 

Sehun chuckled to himself and walked over to the join the other. “Which one do you want, hyung?” He repeated himself, reaching over to adjust the beanie on Baekhyun’s head.

 

“Hmmm, I want...that one!” He pointed to a rather tall pine tree, the other frowned, doubting whether or not it would even fit in the elder’s apartment.

 

“Is that gonna fit in your apartment?”

 

Baekhyun inspected it, looking up and down with both of his hands on his hips. He leaned his head back and rested it on Sehun's face. The younger resisted the urge to wrap his arms around Baekhyun's waist and pull him for a kiss.

 

“I think so.” And with that, he walked off to find an employee to help him.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

The task of strapping down the tree onto the roof of Sehun’s car was a struggle. After fifteen minutes of fumbling around with rope and hooks, the two finally got it securely strapped onto the car, with the help of an employee of course because they had no idea what they were doing.

 

“I hope you live on the first floor because this is gonna be a bitch to carry.” Sehun tiredly sighed as he got into his car and buckled in his seat belt.

 

“I do actually, so it won’t be that hard. We just need to get it through the entrance.”

 

Once they arrived at the apartment complex, the two clumsily removed the tree from the roof of the car and lugged it to entrance of the building.

 

Going up the steps was the hardest part and Sehun was regretting letting Baekhyun choose such a large tree. They both collapsed to the ground once they finally got it into the apartment, sweat was dripping down their forehead despite the cold weather.

 

“You just had to pick the biggest tree in the lot didn’t you, hyung. Why couldn’t you have just gotten those fake ones that you can assemble like everyone else.” Sehun sighed, wiping his forehead with his sleeve.

 

“It was _not_ the biggest tree! Real trees are so much prettier and smell nice! And besides, go big or go home.”

 

“Well it’s too late to go home now.”

 

Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “You’re lucky I don’t live on the top floor. The elevators aren’t working so we would’ve had to taken the stairs.”

 

“If we had to take the stairs I probably would’ve ditched you.” The younger said, earning him a slap on the arm.

 

“Yah! You brat, you’re so rude.”

 

Sehun laughed, trying to dodge the other’s attack but failed miserably. _I like you too much to ditch you, idiot_ , he thought as he watched the elder pouted.

 

They both got up and cut off the rope tied around the tree, letting all the branches fly out. Sehun pushed it upright, making sure it was in the pot right and that it wasn’t going to fall over.

 

Baekhyun left to fetch the box of ornaments and lights he had recently purchased a week ago, happy to see how beautiful the tree looked now that it was up when he returned.

 

“Waaah it looks so pretty!”

 

“Hyung we haven’t even decorated it yet.” Sehun scoffed, yet he smiled at how happy the other looked. After half an hour of arguing over which ornaments to put where, Baekhyun got his way every time since Sehun just couldn’t resist him, they finally finished putting up all the lights and decorations.

 

All that was left was to put the star on top. Sehun volunteered to do so saying how he was taller so it would be easier, however the elder opposed and insisted that he would do it.

 

Baekhyun tried his best to reach the top, standing on his tippy toes but he still couldn’t reach it. He exhaled in frustration and the younger smiled smugly saying how he could’ve done it with no problem.

 

Baekhyun glared at him and stomped off to find something to stand on. He returned with a small step stool, setting it down beside the tree and stepped onto to it.

 

He set the star perfectly on top of the tree and turned around to stick his tongue out at the younger. Sehun sighed in defeated, playfully rolling his eyes.

 

Baekhyun smirked and started to step off of the stool. His foot suddenly slipped off of the edge and he fell forward with a squeal. The younger’s eyes widened and quickly reached out to grab him before he could hit the ground.  

 

They both fell onto the ground with a loud thud, both of them groaning in pain. Sehun ended up landing on top of Baekhyun even though he was trying to break the other’s fall.

 

One of his hands was under Baekhyun’s head, making sure it didn’t hit the floor, and the other was around the elder’s waist, on the small of his back.

 

Baekhyun’s muffled groan alerted the younger and he quickly lifted himself off the other’s smaller frame. Sehun was hovering over the other, worriedly examining his face and body to make sure he wasn’t hurt anywhere.

 

“Are you okay, hyung?” He asked, obviously panicking because he had just fallen on top of him.

 

“Yeah I’m fine, my back just hurts…” Sehun sighed in relief, they both made eye contact and all the younger could think about was how close their faces were and that if he leaned down just a few inches they would be kissing.

 

And he really wanted to kiss Baekhyun.

 

“Uhm am I interrupting something?” A voice suddenly snapped Sehun out of his thoughts and he realized what position they were in. Baekhyun was lying on the ground between Sehun’s thighs and Sehun was hovering over him with his hands supporting himself up, positioned on either side of the elder’s head.  

 

“Oh hey, Jongdae.” Baekhyun chirped, unphased by the situation.

 

“Uh- Hey.” The younger awkwardly greeted as he hastily got up.

 

“Hello to you too…” Jongdae snickered, raising a brow at the younger.

 

Sehun cleared his throat and averted his eyes.

 

“What are you doing here? And how did you even get in, you creep.” Baekhyun said.

 

“I texted you and told you I was gonna come by to pick up my textbook, but I guess you were a little... preoccupied,” he smirked at Sehun, “And you’re the one that left your door wide open, dumbass.”

 

“Oh, yeah I guess we forgot to close it earlier. Look at my new tree! Doesn’t it look nice?” He gestured toward the decorated Christmas tree in the corner of the living room.

 

Sehun felt like melting at the sight of a happy Baekhyun. He was now glad that they went through the hard work of getting that tree and making it look nice because after seeing the elder’s beaming smile, he felt like it was worth all the aggravation.

 

“It looks great, now can I have my textbook?”

 

“Wow please try to contain your enthusiasm, Jongdae.” Baekhyun deadpanned before walking into his room to retrieve his friend’s book.

 

“Sooo…,What were you guys doing?” Jongdae asked, clearly amused at how flustered the younger was.

 

“We were uhm- decorating the tree.” Sehun awkwardly blurted. He mentally facepalmed himself, decorating the tree?

 

Jongdae raised his brows. “On the ground?” He snickered.

 

“Well uhm- Baekhyun was standing on the stool and he uh fell so I was trying to catch him and yeah.”

 

Jongdae bit back a laugh and rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say man.”

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

 

On Christmas eve Sehun spent the night at his parents’ house; his mother constantly nagged him about focusing on his studies and his father asked him where Jongin was.

 

Jongin was planning to spend Christmas with them this year but his mother missed him too much so he decided to back home for winter break.

 

His mother asked if he was seeing anyone and Baekhyun immediately popped up in his head, but he told her he wasn’t seeing anyone and she told him to stop having such a scary face all the time or else he would never find anyone.

 

He had told her that he got it from his father and argued saying that she still fell in love him despite his 'scary face.'

 

On Christmas day he drove over to Baekhyun’s house, his present for the elder was in the passenger seat and he kept glancing at it as if it would run away.

 

He knew he shouldn’t be so nervous because it really wasn’t that big of a deal, but he couldn’t help being worried about whether Baekhyun would like his present or not.

 

He had been texting Jongin all week asking him for advice on what to get the other, but even Jongin was unsure about what to get the boy.

 

They were both horrible at gift giving, always giving each other gag gifts or straight out asking each other what they wanted when it came to birthdays or Christmas.

 

When he knocked on Baekhyun’s door it flung open almost immediately, revealing the elder still dressed in his pyjamas and a Santa hat on his head.

 

“Sehunnie! Finally, I was waiting for you to come. You’re not wearing your PJs!” The elder exclaimed.

 

“I didn’t know I was suppose to.” Sehun lightly chuckled, taking off his coat and setting it onto the couch.

 

“It’s always more fun to open presents in your jammies!” They both sat on the carpeted floor next to the tree, both of them with wrapped up gifts on their laps.

 

“I wish was Jongin was here...It would’ve been more fun with the three of us all together. He texted me this morning to say Merry Christmas and I asked him if he wanted us to wait for him to open our presents but he just said to go ahead and open them today.”

 

Sehun nodded, also disappointed Jongin couldn’t be there with them. Even though it was nice to have alone time with Baekhyun, Jongin was his best friend and it would’ve been nice to spend Christmas together.

 

“Okay well then, do you wanna open yours first?” Baekhyun excitedly held out a small box. Sehun thanked him before taking the box and opening it.

 

He was surprised to see a picture of the elder inside and looked up at him confusedly.

 

“Take me, Sehun-ah!” He snuggled up into the crook of Sehun’s neck.

 

The younger froze, his heart was beating so fast he thought it was going to burst. Baekhyun bursted into laughter and Sehun wasn’t sure what was going on.

 

“I’m just kidding, here's your real present.” He pulled out a bigger gift from underneath the tree and handed it to Sehun.

 

The younger awkwardly laughed, trying to calm down his heart before proceeding to unwrap the present; the wrapping paper had cute little gingerbread men all over them and Sehun thought it matched Baekhyun’s personality very well.

 

When he finished unwrapping it, he saw that it was a black crewneck sweater, neatly folded up. When he unfolded it and held up to see the front, he saw there was a big patch sewn onto it.

 

It was a basketball hoop and a basketball with a smiley face on it, the words “May all your swishes come true” was below it.

 

“Jongin told me you were on the basketball team in high school. He said you really liked it too. I saw that on a kid’s shirt the other day and thought it was cute, so I cut it out and sewed it onto a sweater. I hope you like it.” Baekhyun smiled sweetly at him.

 

Sehun’s heart was beating wildly and he didn’t know if it was because they were near the heater or what but he suddenly felt very warm, inside and out, and all he wanted to do was hold the other in his arms.

 

He had never had anyone do anything like that for him before, nothing that personalized and thoughtful.

 

It made him feel loved and warm inside, he wanted to wear it and never take it off.

 

“I love it, thanks hyung.” He smiled. “Really? You don’t have to lie if you don’t actually like it, you know. I won’t be mad.”

 

The younger shook his head. “I really, really do love it.”

 

Baekhyun smiled from ear to ear, delighted that Sehun liked his present.

 

“Your turn,” he handed him the gift, “I hope you like it...I wasn’t really sure what to get you.”

 

Baekhyun carefully unwrapped the paper, not wanting to rip any of it. Sehun was amused and asked him why he didn’t just rip it, to which Baekhyun responded saying that he liked to save wrapping paper and hang it up on his wall. Sehun knew that Baekhyun had always been the sentimental type.

 

He pulled back the wrapping paper to reveal a fleece blanket, one side was purple and the other side was black. On the edges of the blanket were knots, Baekhyun realized that it was two fabrics tied together by little knots.

 

“You always complained about cold you were in bed so I made you a blanket. Well, kind of, I didn’t know to sew or knit or anything so I just looked up no sew blankets online and there was a thing about no sew blanket knot tying and yeah. It took really a long time to tie all of those and I messed up a couple times…” Sehun nervously scratched the back of his head, trying to read Baekhyun’s face.

 

The elder broke out into a huge grin, his droopy eyes forming those crescents Sehun loves.

 

“I love it! Thanks Sehunnie. This is so cool, I’ve never gotten anything like this. I can’t believe you actually did all this...I feel so special.”

 

“It wasn’t _that_ hard.” Sehun chuckled.  

 

“No, really. I love it...a lot. It must’ve taken forever to tie all of these...No one’s ever done anything like this for me before, thanks Sehun-ah.” Baekhyun leaned forward to hug Sehun, surprising the other.

 

Sehun pulled him close and Baekhyun nuzzled his face into the crook of his neck, the younger hoped he didn’t feel or hear his heartbeating since their chests were flush against each other.

 

Sehun decided that maybe he didn’t hate winter that much after all.

 

 


	11. Bananas About You

Jongin drove back to Seoul on Monday evening and instead of going back to his apartment, he drove straight to the grocery store where a certain someone was working that night.

 

When he walked through the doors, he didn’t see Baekhyun at the register where usually was. He wore a puzzled look on his face as he walked up and down the aisles, trying to see if he could find the other anywhere.

 

He stopped in the chips section when he spotted the elder crouching under one of the shelves, unpacking bags of chips from a cardboard box and setting them onto the shelf.

 

“Hey, you.” Jongin said quietly, stooping down behind the elder.

 

“Who is- Jongin!” Baekhyun gasped. He quickly tried sit up, forgetting that he was under a shelf and bumped his head on the hard metal.

 

“Oww…” He whimpered as he rubbed his head.

 

“Are you okay?!” Jongin quickly pulled the other’s hand away and replaced it with his own.

 

“Yeah…That happens a lot actually.”

 

The younger laughed before kissing the top of Baekhyun’s head where he bumped it. “There, feel better?” He smirked. The elder immediately flushed, hitting Jongin on the chest and standing up.

 

“Y-Yah you punk, w-what do you think you’re doing!?” Baekhyun stuttered, his cheeks a pretty shade of bubblegum pink.

 

“I was kissing the boo boo away,” Jongin shrugged, “We haven’t seen each other for weeks, don’t I get a proper greeting?”

 

The elder immediately jumped up and wrapped his arms around Jongin’s neck, pulling him in close for a hug.

 

“I missed you!”

 

Jongin smiled, wrapping his arms around Baekhyun’s waist. “We texted each other like everyday.” He chuckled.

 

He felt like a husband coming home to a loving family after a long business trip and it made him feel like he was on top of the world.

 

“I know but I haven’t seen your actual face!” Baekhyun exclaimed.

 

“So you miss my face?” Jongin teased, reluctantly letting go when the other pulled away.

 

“You know what I mean, brat.” The elder turned away, Jongin got a glimpse of his tinted cheeks and chuckled. “You wanna hang out tomorrow? I can come over after I’m done tutoring around noon.”

 

“Yeah sure, I have to drop some papers off at school anyway so I can just pick you up.”

 

“I wanna go with you! Show me around.”

 

“What do you mean? We go to the same university.” Jongin said, amused.

 

“I’ve been been to that side of the campus! And I’ve never been in the business building. The engineering building is on the opposite side from you guys!” The elder explained.

 

“I really doubt it’ll look that much different, but alright then. I’ll come get you at the library and we can go together.” Baekhyun nodded enthusiastically and Jongin couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

“You were right, this doesn’t look that much different from the engineering building…Different stuff on the walls though. And different paint job and whatnot.” Baekhyun said as he took in his surroundings.

 

“Told you so.” Jongin chortled. They walked through the halls of the building, the elder usually lagged behind because he was looking at something he thought was interesting.

 

“This is fun, I like seeing all the differences! I’ll have to show you around the engineering building sometime, it’s pretty cool, not gonna lie.” Jongin laughed and agreed to let the other give him a tour next time.

 

“I’m glad you’re having fun.” They continued down the hall when Jongin suddenly stopped, causing Baekhyun to bump into him. “Shit!” The younger whispered.

 

“Jongin? What’s wro-AH!” Baekhyun was suddenly pulled into a dark and cramped janitor’s closet.

 

“Jongin, what the hell are you doing?!” He hissed.

 

Jongin slapped a hand over the other’s mouth, shushing him. They both waited in silence for a minute before the younger sighed and removed his hand.

 

“Uhm, now can you please explain to me why you shoved me into a closet?”

 

“Sorry, there’s this girl that confessed to me and now she won’t leave me alone whenever she sees me and I saw her turning the corner.” Jongin sighed in frustration as he ran his hand through his hair.

 

“Oooh, someone’s popul-Ah!” Baekhyun yelped after accidentally knocking over the mops and brooms.

 

“You’re really clumsy, aren’t you?” Jongin snickered, picking up the fallen items.

 

“Just a little bit…” The elder pouted.

 

“You’re too cute, Baek.” The younger chuckled.

 

“S-Shut up! I-I am not!,” Baekhyun sputtered, “Why don’t you call me hyung like Sehun does? Just because you’re taller than me doesn’t mean anything I’m still your hyung, you brat.”

 

Even in the dark space of the closet, Jongin could tell the elder was madly blushing. He thought it was cutest thing in the world, the fact that Baekhyun who was usually so outgoing and confident but so easily flustered when someone called him cute.

 

“You’re wrong, you know.” Jongin slowly leaned forward, his face only a few inches away from the other’s, causing Baekhyun to back up against the door.

 

The taller placed his hands on door, on either side of Baekhyun’s head, trapping him between his arms. The elder swallowed hard, his face heating up even more by the second.

 

Jongin leaned in closer until he lips were almost touching the other’s ear. “You’re really adorable, _hyung_.” He said in a low, seductive voice.  

 

Baekhyun’s eyes widened, he was pretty sure his cheeks were as red as a tomato now and the heat emanating from Jongin’s body was not helping.

 

Before he could say anything, the door was opened and he almost fell back if it weren’t for Jongin’s strong arm wrapping around his waist and pulling him in close.

 

“What the-” The janitor said, obviously shocked to see two students stumbling out of the closet.

 

“Sorry sir, we’ll get of your way now.” Jongin interrupted the man with a smug smile on his face.

 

“U-uhm yeah s-sorry!” Baekhyun squeaked, bowing to the man before quickly following after the younger.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“That wasn’t funny!” The elder huffed, slapping Jongin on the arm. “What do you mean? I wasn’t joking.” Jongin retorted, a teasing smirk pulled at the corner of his lip.

 

“Whatever.” Baekhyun muttered with pouty lips, his cheeks still dusted with light pink. “Hey, Baek!” A deep voice bellowed from behind them.

 

The two turned around to see where the voice had come from, they saw Chanyeol walking toward them from the end of the hall. Jongin rolled his eyes and sneakily slid his arm around the elder’s waist, pulling him into a possessive hold.

 

“Uh- H-Hi,Chanyeol.” Baekhyun greeted with an awkward smile once the other had reached them. Chanyeol grinned at him, his eyes wandered down to the arm around him and then up to Jongin.

 

They stared angrily at each other for a couple seconds before Chanyeol broke into a fake smile. “Hey, Jongin.”

 

Jongin scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Park.” He acknowledged.

 

“What are you guys doing here? You don’t go here right, Baek?” Chanyeol shifted his attention to the shorter of the three. Baekhyun opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off when Jongin spoke up.

 

“I was showing him around and now if you’ll excuse us we have to go now.” Baekhyun blurted out a quick ‘bye’ before whisked away by the younger.

 

“I hate that guy.” Jongin mumbled under his breath.

 

“But I thought you guys were friends?”

 

“We’re- kind of friends. I mean we just hang out because of Kris but that’s it. I don’t even know why Kris hangs out with that guy, he’s an asshole.” The younger complained.

 

“Oh…” Baekhyun slowly nodded.

 

“Whateveer, let’s go home. I have a surprise for you.”

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

When they got to Jongin’s apartment, the younger gave Baekhyun his late Christmas present, but the elder insisted that they should open the presents at his apartment.

 

Jongin asked him why and Baekhyun said that they still had his Christmas tree up and that it wouldn’t be as fun if they opened the presents without it.

 

So they drove to the Baekhyun’s apartment and sat down on the floor beside the tree, Baekhyun insisted that Jongin opened his gift first.

 

Jongin opened the red and green bag to reveal pale yellow pyjama bottoms with little bananas printed all over them and a matching white t-shirt that had the words ‘1st Banana’ on the front.

 

“I have a set too, mine says second banana, we’re matching! Aren’t they cute?” Baekhyun said excitedly.

 

“They are really cute, thanks Baek,” Jongin chuckled, “You better wear yours every time you sleep over so we can match.”

 

“Of course I will.” Jongin felt his heart flutter, Baekhyun basically got them _couple_ outfits. His heart skipped a beat in jubilation as he watched the elder smile at him.

 

“It’s actually pretty funny that you got me something banana related cause…” Jongin pulled out his present for other, it was in a small gift bag and Baekhyun enthusiastically took the bag and opened it. Inside was a misshapen ceramic mug with a poorly drawn banana on it, next to the banana were the words “I’m bananas for you,” which were messily written on.

 

Baekhyun giggled when he read the writing. “Did you make this?” He asked.

 

“Yeah...It was my first time making pottery… sorry it’s so shitty. I’m really bad at getting gifts and I wanted it to be personal so I thought I’d make something and I know you always drink coffee while you’re working so I thought it’d a good idea to make you mug. I mean you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to, I know it’s really ugly but-” Jongin nervously rambled.

 

Baekhyun slapped his hand over the younger’s mouth, stopping his babbling.

 

“Jongin, it’s fine,” he chuckled, “I love it,” “R-Really?” The younger asked.

 

“Yes,” Baekhyun nodded, “It’s really cute and you made it so of course I love it! Plus I love mugs.”

 

Jongin could tell by the sparkle in Baekhyun’s eyes that he was genuinely happy and that’s the best present he could ever receive.

 

Without warning, Jongin brought Baekhyun in for a bone crushing hug.

 

“Yeah what are you-”

 

“Thank you Baek, for liking my present.” Baekhyun pulled away to look the younger in the face. After flashing him his trademark smile, the elder ruffled Jongin's hair.

 

“Why wouldn't I like it? You made it for me, of course I love it. I would love anything you give me! It means a lot that you went out of your way to do this.”

 

"Really, anything? Even if I gave you a rock?"

 

"It would be my special rock." Baekhyun smiled.


	12. Kissing Booth

It was February, which meant it was that time of the year. Valentine's Day. Every year, Luhan’s neighborhood would throw a Valentine's Day Fair in the park near his house, using the money they earned to fix up and improve the park.

 

Sehun, Jongin, and Luhan have been going every year since high school. It was fun when they were freshman, but as they got older they realized how boring the whole thing was; there were the same old games, same old themes, and Mr. Kang did the same old puppet routine but they still went every year, it was tradition.

 

This year, however Luhan told them they finally added something new: a kissing booth.

 

Of course Luhan was the one who suggested it to the committee so he would be the one in charge of it.

 

Sehun and Jongin laughed at him saying how he obviously didn’t care about fundraising to better the community and that he was just using it as an excuse to kiss strangers and Luhan couldn’t even deny it.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

A blanket of snow covered the grass in the park and the temperature was still remotely cold, but Baekhyun smiled to himself seeing all the children and their parents excitedly run around from one booth to another.

 

He adjusted his scarf and pushed up his glasses as he searched through the crowds of people for Jongin and Sehun. They said they would meet him there but they were nowhere to be found. He walked around for a while, got himself a hot chocolate and ended up at Luhan’s kissing booth when the latter had called him over.

“Oh hey, Luhan,” Baekhyun cheerfully greeted.

“Hey Baek, you waiting for Sehun and Jongin?”

 

“Yeah, we were suppose to meet up but I haven’t seen them…”

 

“Oh they should be coming soon…,” Luhan mischievously said, “By the way can you watch the booth for a little? I gotta go help my mom real quick.”

 

Baekhyun looked up the sign and awkwardly smiled. “Uhm I don’t really think-”

 

“I won’t be long! Just stand here, you’ll do fine, you’re cute! And it’s for a good cause so yeah thanks!” Luhan quickly said before darting off.

 

When he was a safe distance away, Luhan pulled his phone out of his pocket to text Jongin and and Sehun to tell them to stop by the kissing booth.

 

After he received a reply that said the two were almost there, he walked away with a wicked smile on his face.

 

He had always known that the two liked Baekhyun, it was obvious the way they looked at him that night they played spin the bottle at Kris’s house and he thought it would be interesting to spice things up a little by having Baekhyun man the kissing booth for a little.

 

 _I wonder what will happen today_ , he thought as he quietly chuckled.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“Why is this kissing booth so hard to find?” Jongin groaned as he squeezed between the crowd of people.

 

“Luhan said it was by the hot chocolate booth and I think I see it over there,” Sehun said.

 

“I still can’t believe the committee actually let Luhan have a _kissing booth_ ,” Jongin scoffed.

 

“You know he’s good at getting what he wants,” Sehun chuckled.

 

“Yeah but still, it’s suppose be a family thing and- What the fuck?!” Jongin exclaimed, suddenly stopping his tracks. Sehun looked to where the other was looking, his jaw dropped when he saw Baekhyun at the kissing booth.

 

“What the fuck is Baekhyun doing there?!” the blonde blurted.

 

“I don’t know, I’m texting Luhan right now.” Jongin hastily pulled out his phone and furiously texted him.

 

_To Lulu: where the fuck are u_

_To Lulu: u said u’d be here_

_To Lulu: why the fuck is baek @ the booth_

_Lulu: ;)_

 

_To Lulu: wtf is that suppose to mean???_

_Lulu: i know u guys like him ;)_

 

Jongin groaned, throwing his head back in frustration.

 

“What’s wrong? What did he say?” Sehun asked.

 

“He said he knows we like him,” Jongin sighed.

 

“What the hell? What does have that to do with anything? What is he trying to pull?” Sehun scoffed.

 

“I don’t fucking know, let me ask him.”

 

_To Lulu: and????? What does that have to do w/ baek @ the booth???_

_Lulu: idk i just thought itd b funny_

_Lulu: now go do smth bc i told every1 there’s a cute new guy @ the kissing booth ;)_

_To Lulu: fuck you_

_Lulu: <3_

 

“Luhan’s an asshole,” Jongin sighed.

 

“What did he say?”

 

“He said he thought it would be _funny_. Ugh we should’ve known, he’s always been a little shit.”

 

“How did he even find out that we like Baekhyun?” Sehun asked.

 

“Who knows, he’s always been scary good at these things…”

 

They both turned their attention to a group of guys they recognized from school.

 

The two overheard them talking about how Luhan had told them to check out the new kissing booth and that there was cute guy from the engineering department manning it.

 

“I don’t fucking think so,” Sehun muttered as he stomped over to the group. Jongin followed right after and the two walked up to the group of boys, if looks could kill, the boys would definitely be dead by now.

 

“Uhm can we help you?” One of the boys spoke up.

 

“Yeah you can actually, don’t even think about going to the kissing booth,” Jongin spat out, his voice dangerously low.

 

“But-”

 

“Did he fucking stutter? Stay away, _or else_ ,” Sehun growled, his eyes were shooting daggers into the other’s face.

 

The boys nervously nodded as they slowly backed away, not wanting to cause any trouble.

 

“Now go tell all your friends to not go anywhere near the booth, at least until he’s gone,” Jongin said, pointing at Baekhyun who was looking nervously looking for Luhan.

 

The group swiftly walked away, glancing back a few times as if not knowing what just happened. Sehun and Jongin sighed before walking up to the booth to finally meet up with Baekhyun.

 

“Hey Baek,” Jongin greeted, his bright smile present as if he didn’t just scare away those poor boys.

 

“Hey hyung,” Sehun smiled at him.

 

“Hey guys! Have you seen Luhan? He told me he would be back right away and it’s been almost ten minutes…” The elder said, still looking around the park for any sign of Luhan.

 

“He’s probably off somewhere flirting with someone...Anyway how’s business going?” Jongin asked.

 

“Not good...No one’s come for some reason. I’m kind of glad but I feel bad because we’re suppose to be raising money...I wonder why no one’s coming,” Baekhyun pouted, his eyebrows furrowing together in confusion.

 

“Yeah...weird…” Sehun said, turning to Jongin.

 

The two exchanged knowing looks before turning back to the elder, acting as if nothing was wrong.

 

“Oh look there’s someone!” Baekhyun piped as he spotted a young man checking out the booth.

 

Sehun and Jongin turned around and made eye contact with the man, they both crossed their arms and  shot him a cold glare. The man’s eyes widened before promptly walked away.

 

Baekhyun frowned when he saw the man practically ran away after seeing the booth.

 

“Is there something wrong with me?” He asked.

 

“Of course not, I’m sure he just had somewhere to be,” Sehun reassured.

 

“Oh look there’s Luhan,” Jongin spoke up when he saw said boy walking toward them with a shit-eating grin on his face.

 

“Oh hey Jonginnie, Sehunnie,” Luhan snickered.

 

“ _Hey_ , Luhan,” Jongin hissed.

 

“Hey Luhan, sorry I couldn’t earn any money...I don’t know why no one came…” Baekhyun said sadly.

 

“Oh I think I know why…Don’t worry it’s fine. Thanks for watching it for me Baekhyunnie.” Luhan wrapped his arms around Baekhyun and kissed him on the cheek.

 

He turned to the two annoyed guys and smirked, Jongin and Sehun rolled their eyes and pulled Baekhyun away from the other.

 

“Okay now that you’ve had your fun, we told Baek we were gonna show him around so we’ll see you later,” Jongin said.

 

“What did you mean ‘now that you’ve had your fun’?” Baekhyun asked.

 

“Oh, nothing. Where do you wanna go first? Is there a game or booth you wanna check out?” Jongin asked, quickly trying to change the subject.

 

“Hmm I saw a game over there somewhere, one of the prizes was a cute dog plushie, it was so big! I wanna try to win it,” the elder replied.

 

The three made their way to the booth, it was one of those games where you had to throw the ring and make it land onto one of the bottles and if you made it onto five bottles, you could pick any prize.

 

Baekhyun tried twice and failed both times, he was never really good with those kind of games.

 

“Aw, I really wanted the stuffed animal...I’ve always wanted one of those big ones! I could never win them though,” he pouted.

 

He was about ready to give up when Jongin stopped him and told him that he would give it a try. The elder gasped in awe when Jongin got all five on the first try.

 

“How did you do that?!” Baekhyun gasped.

 

“I told you, me and Sehun have been going to this thing for years. We’ve pretty much mastered all the games by now,” the taller chuckled.

 

The worker handed him the large dog plushie and he gave it to the elder, who gladly accepted. His eyes instantly lit up, his smiled from ear to ear as he hugged the giant toy close to him.

 

“Thank you, Jongin!” He bubbled. Jongin thought it was adorable how the stuffed dog was almost as big as the elder.

 

“No problem,” the other said, patting the other on the head. He had never seen anyone that happy to get a prize before, Baekhyun was like a little kid and Jongin thought it was one of the cutest things he had ever seen.

 

 _Why didn’t I think of that?_ Sehun mentally facepalmed himself when he saw how happy the elder was with the prize that Jongin just won him.

 

He cleared his throat before speaking up. “Oh I heard they got a photo booth this year, let’s go take one!” Sehun said, pulling the elder in the direction of the booth.

 

“I love photo booths, they’re so fun,” the elder giggled. After struggling through all the people, they finally reached the booth and Jongin stepped in first.

 

Sehun sat down next to him, there was only room for two to sit so the blonde pulled Baekhyun down into his lap. “Here you can sit on my lap.”

 

“U-uhm no it’s okay we can just take turns,” the elder said, his cheeks turning a pretty pink as he tried to get up. Sehun wrapped his arms around the other’s waist, stopping him from leaving.

 

“No it’s fine,you’re not heavy at all and I want one with all three of us.” Baekhyun nodded and gave him a small smile, they all looked into the camera, waiting for the count down to get to one before smiling for the picture.

 

For the next one, they all made silly faces, then broke into laughter after the camera snapped the photo. Sehun put Jongin in a headlock for the third one and Baekhyun laughed at the two of them.

 

When it came to the last one, they all smiled again. The countdown was on three when Sehun suddenly had an idea, he waited until the countdown got to one before quickly kissing Baekhyun on the cheek.

 

The elder’s face immediately reddened, his eyes widening as he instantly stood up, resulting in him bumping his head on the top of the booth and falling back onto the snow. He landed on his butt with a high pitched squeal, his hand coming up to rub the bump on his head.

 

“Hyung, are you okay?!” The blonde kneeled down to inspect the other’s head. Jongin got down on his knees, also to look at the elder’s bruised head.

 

“Jeez Baek, you gotta be more careful,” Jongin said, rubbing the elder’s head comfortingly.

 

“I-I’m okay,” the elder stuttered. He got up on his feet, with the help of the other two.

 

“W-What was that for, you little punk!” He slapped Sehun on the arm, the blush still on his cheeks.

 

“Ow! What was what for?” the blonde winced as he rubbing his arm.

 

“Y-You know!”

 

“I don’t know, I just thought it’d be funny to see your reaction, I didn’t think you’d freak out like that,” Sehun pouted.

 

“What are you guys talking about?” Jongin asked, extremely confused about what the two were talking about.

 

The photo strip came out and Jongin picked it up, his jaw dropped when he saw the last picture with Sehun kissing Baekhyun on the cheek. Jongin turned to the blonde and slapped him on the arm.

 

“Ow! At least slap the other arm…” Sehun whined. “No fair!” Jongin whispered into his ear.

 

“What do you mean no fair?! You got to win him the stuffed animal!” Sehun whispered back.

 

Baekhyun stared in confusion at the two boys heatedly whispered to each other.

 

“Uhm are you guys okay?” He asked.

 

The two boys snapped their heads toward the shorter, immediately shutting up and smiling at him.

 

“Yeah we’re fine. Wanna go eat now?” Jongin asked.

 

“Yeah, sure.”

 

“Great, I’m starving,” Sehun sighed.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“Thanks for inviting me you guys, I had a lot of fun,” Baekhyun said, his cute rectangular smile on his face. He unbuckled his seatbelt and hopped out of Jongin’s truck.

 

“No problem, we’ll see you later?” Jongin said. Baekhyun nodded before waving to the both of them and walking up his steps to go into the apartment complex. Sehun climbed to the front seat and put on his seatbelt and they drove off.

 

“I can’t believe you kissed him,” Jongin scoffed.

 

“It was only on the cheek! And you were the one showing off and won him that stupid toy,” Sehun whined.

 

“He wanted it! And you’re probably just jealous that you didn’t think of doing it yourself,” Jongin smirked. The other playfully rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

 

“Yeah, whatever…”

“Did you have fun today though?” Jongin asked.

Sehun nodded, “Yeah I did, you?”

“Me too,” the other smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah yes things are...heating up...this was so cliche im sorry but i live for that shit
> 
> luhan is such a good wing man isn't he


	13. Drunk, Stoned, & Stupid

Ever since the whole spin the bottle incident, both Sehun and Jongin were pretty sure they were never going to let Baekhyun go another one of Kris’s, or any of their other friends for that matter, parties ever again.

 

Of course that they both knew that they couldn’t keep him away for that long, especially if Luhan had anything to do with it. When Kris announced that he was having yet another “get together,” they had no intentions of telling the elder about it; they both planned to stay home and hang out with Baekhyun.

 

But of course Luhan just couldn’t let them live in peace and convinced him to go, resulting in both of the other two going as well because they just couldn’t say no to Baekhyun.

 

Luhan promised them that Chanyeol wouldn’t be there this time, it took him about an hour to convince the the two that he wasn’t messing with him again.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

Baekhyun had invited Kyungsoo and Jongdae this time; Kyungsoo said that he had to study for a test on Monday and Baekhyun called him a party pooper.

 

Jongdae gladly accepted the invitation, curious if anything would happen between Baekhyun and Sehun. It was only eleven at night and there were already people drunk out of their minds, the coffee table was covered in empty beer cans and red solo cups.

 

Jongin and Sehun felt slightly guilty that Baekhyun had to deal with all the annoying and intoxicated beings, especially since some of them had a serious case of the grab hands, but they were just glad that Chanyeol wasn’t there to stir up any trouble.

 

Naturally, Luhan had to fill in the role of the troublemaker and think of a way to make things interesting.

 

“Anyone up for a game of truth or dare?” he smirked.

 

Jongin and Sehun exchanged annoyed looks before glaring at the other.

 

“I don’t think anyone wants to play, Luhan,” Sehun frowned.

 

“I do, sounds fun. I haven’t played that game in years,” Kris said.

 

Everyone, except those that were too drunk to even sit up, gathered in the living room and wrote their names on scraps of paper.

 

The names were dropped into Luhan’s snapback and the hat was passed around the room, everyone took turns drawing a name and asking the person they chose truth or dare.

 

Tao whined when he was dared to walk around the block without a flashlight and cried when Jongdae and Kris hid in a bush to scare him. Baekhyun was glad Jongdae was getting along with everyone, but he pitied Tao for having to deal with his sadistic jokes, he laughed nonetheless.

 

When it was Luhan’s turn to pick a name, he evilly grinned upon seeing that he drew Baekhyun’s name. “Baekhyun,” he said, “truth or dare?”

 

Baekhyun thought about it for a couple seconds before replying. “Hmm, truth.”

 

“Aw come on Baekhyunnie, dare’s more fun!” Luhan looked at him expectantly with his best puppy dog eyes.

 

“Uh sure. Yeah I guess I’ll choose dare,” the other innocently smiled at him.

 

Luhan bit back the smirk threatening to appear on his face, he had always been good at getting what he wants.

 

“Alright then,” Luhan smiled widely, “I dare you to...kiss Jongin on the cheek.”

 

“W-What?” The elder stuttered. Both Jongin’s and Baekhyun’s eyes widened, Sehun choked on his beer and choked out a weak ‘I’m fine’ when Jongdae asked if he was okay.

 

“Mhm hmm, go on! Or else you’ll get punished and the punishment is to jump into the pool. Naked.”

 

Baekhyun gulped and proceeded get up from the floor to turn to Jongin who was sitting on the armchair next to him.

 

He quickly pecked the younger’s right cheek, his own cheeks reddened immediately as he sat back down, too embarrassed to look at Jongin.

 

The younger sat there in a daze as everyone continued with the game, his hand reached up to touch the spot that the elder had kissed, not knowing if what just happened was real or if he was just tripping out from all the beer he drank.

 

Even if it was just a peck on the cheek, he wasn't exactly expecting it to happen so when it did, he felt shouting from the rooftops.

 

He also thought that it was absolutely adorable how flustered Baekhyun was after just a kiss on the cheek.

 

Meanwhile, Sehun narrowed his eyes at Luhan, who pretended not to see, and crossed his arms as he sulked.

 

He contemplated cheating and saying that he chose Baekhyun so that he could dare him to kiss him too, but he figured that that wouldn’t fair and continued to sulk like a child in timeout.

 

Jongdae tried to hold in his chuckle as he watched the younger try to hide his jealousy. He figured he would give Sehun a little help, so when it was his turn to pick a name, he said that he chose Sehun even though he chose a girl named Hani.

 

“I got Sehun! Truth or dare?” Sehun chose dare and Jongdae shot him a wink before continuing with his dare, the younger looked at him in confusion and waited for him to speak.

 

“I dare you to play the pepero game with Baekhyun!” Everyone in the room cheered and whistled loudly, with the exception of Jongin, Sehun, and Baekhyun.

 

Both Jongin’s and Sehun’s mouths dropped, Baekhyun shot his best friend an angry and flustered look, the other laughed and gave him an encouraging push toward Sehun.

 

“What are you doing?!” the elder hissed in his Jongdae’s ear.

 

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” Jongdae said as he continued to push his friend toward the blonde awkwardly standing in the middle of the room.

 

The two shy smiled at each other before Sehun put the pepero stick between their faces and bit onto one end.

 

He slightly angled his head down so that Baekhyun could reach the other and the elder bit onto it. They steadily bit the snack and forward, tilting their head sideways when their got closer so that their noses would touch.

 

Baekhyun felt his face heat up more and more as their faces got closer, he looked up at the ceiling since he was too embarrassed to look at the younger in the eyes.

 

All Sehun could think about was how close the elder’s pretty pink lips were to his, he saw the blush on his cheeks and he thought how prettier Baekhyun looked up close.

 

There were about two more inches left of the pepero and the elder was glad it was almost over when he suddenly felt a warm hand cup the back of the his neck, pulling him closer.

 

He eyes almost shot out of their sockets and he was pretty sure his face was extremely red by now. Sehun was quickly advancing and all the elder could think of doing was clenching his eyes shut and wait for it to end.

 

The younger focused on the other’s lips as he tightened his grip on his nape. A shiver ran down his spine, he tried to ignore Sehun’s hand but his sensitive neck betrayed him.

 

Jongin was on the edge of his seat when the two were less an inch away from touching lips. He sighed in relief and gulp down half his can of beer when Sehun bit down on the pepero and ended the game.

 

His relief didn’t last long however, when Jongdae “accidentally” bumped into Sehun, pushing him forward. Before anyone could do anything, the blonde fell forward, his lips landing right on the elder’s lips.

 

Jongin suddenly spat out everything that was in his mouth onto Tao.

 

“Dude, what the fuck!”  the chinese boy yelled.

 

“S-Sorry, Tao.” The other angrily muttered himself as he walked off to the bathroom to clean himself.

 

While that was happening, the two very flustered and blushing young men threw themselves off each other, not daring to look at one another.

 

“S-Sorry hyung, I-I didn’t mean to. Jongdae bumped into me,” Sehun stuttered, his heart thumping so hard in his chest he was sure everyone in the room could hear.

 

“I-It’s okay,” Baekhyun timidly said, still avoiding eye contact. Everyone else laughed, unaware of the love triangle in front of them.

 

“What did you do that for?!” Sehun slapped Jongdae on the arm.

 

“Ow...This is what I get for helping you?” the elder whined.

 

“What-What do you mean help me?” Sehun lowered his voice, pulling the other aside so that no one else could hear them.

 

“I _mean_ I know you like Baek so I helped you!”

 

“Wait- What- H-How did you know?”

 

“Oh come on Sehun,” Jongdae scoffed, “It was so obvious. That one day when you guys were ‘decorating the tree’ I could practically see the hearts in your eyes when you on top of him. I’m surprised he didn’t realize but Baek’s always been kinda oblivious to these things so.”

 

“Keep your voice down! Ugh I was that obvious?” he groaned.

 

Jongdae nodded, holding onto his stomach as he laughed.

 

“Wait, why are you trying to help me?”

 

“Because you’re a nice guy and I think you guys are cute together. Plus I saw how you were pouting earlier when he kissed Jongin and I felt bad for you,” the elder snickered.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

Two hours and countless cans of beers later, Sehun and Jongin were very, very drunk. Baekhyun had never seen the two drink so much, he found out that they were really competitive and couldn’t refuse whenever one of their friend challenged them to some kind of drinking game.

 

The elder and Jongdae were never a big fan of alcohol, they drank a couple cans and spent the night laughing at the idiotic things the two younger boys did.

 

Baekhyun had to stop Jongin from jumping into the pool from the roof, he couldn’t wait to make fun of him the next day.

 

Another thing he found out was that Sehun and Jongin were affectionate when they were drunk, _really_ affectionate. It was one in the morning and Baekhyun was spending the night (or early morning) holding back two very clingy and giggly boys.

 

“ _You’re so cuuuute Baekie,_ ” Jongin slurred, grabbing the elder’s left hand and neck.

 

“I know, Jongin,” Baekhyun chuckled, “You’ve said that like ten times already.”

 

He carefully grabbed onto Jongin’s arms and pulled them off himself.

 

“ _Hyuuuuung_ ,” Sehun whined. “Yes, Sehun?” the elder quietly laughed. “ _Pay attention to me tooooooo!_ ”

 

Sehun wrapped his arms around the other’s waist and snuggled into the side of his body.

 

“Okay I think it’s time to get you two to bed,” Baekhyun chuckled.

 

He struggled to haul each of them up the stairs and into the guest bedroom, especially with them being so touchy and wanting to grab him every second.

 

Jongdae had to help him with Jongin, who was a lot more clingy than Sehun, and when they finally got him into the room it was even harder to get the younger to let go of Baekhyun and onto the bed.

 

After they finally plopped him down next to Sehun, Jongdae left to get sleep and Baekhyun was about to leave when Jongin grabbed his wrist.

 

_“Baaeekkieee, sleep with me!”_

 

“ _Shh!_ Go to sleep Jongin.”

 

The elder was about to leave when he was pulled down, he landed on the bed between the two boys and Jongin had his arms wrapped tightly around his waist.

 

Sehun was fast asleep, his chest heaving up and down next to him, Baekhyun sighed and decided not to fight it, he probably wouldn't be able to deal with drunk and clingy Jongin by himself anyway.

 

“Okay I’ll sleep with you. Now you’re gonna go to sleep right?”  

 

The younger nuzzled his face into the crook of Baekhyun’s neck, humming in agreement.

 

“Stop doing that,” the elder giggled, “It tickles! My neck is sensitive.”

 

The younger pulled him flush against his own body, Baekhyun’s back was touching the other’s chest and Jongin continued to nuzzle into the crook of his neck.

 

“Jongin!” the elder whispered.

 

“ _Mhmm you smell good._ ”

 

Baekhyun shuddered at the hot breath on his nape, he let out a surprised squeak when he felt the younger sucking and nibbling at the sensitive skin of his neck.

 

“J-Jongin!” He squealed. He thrashed around in Jongin’s arms as much as he could without waking Sehun up, he stilled when he felt the younger stop and heard quiet snoring behind him.

 

He exhaled a breath of relief, finally feeling his body relax before drifting off to sleep.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

Sehun groaned when he cracked an eye open, the sunlight almost blinding him. He felt the bed shift next time, when he saw that it was Baekhyun he jerked backward and fell off the bed.

 

He quickly got up and checked to make sure the both of them still had clothes on. He groaned as he massaged his temples, he hadn’t gotten a hangover this bad in a long time. He stalked over to Jongin and tried to wake him up, nudging him with his foot.

 

“Yah Jongin, wake up!” He whispered.

 

_“Nghh…”_

 

“Get up, idiot.”

 

“What the fuck, Hun. What time is it?” Jongin said, his raspy voice still laced with sleepiness.

 

“I don’t know but get up, look at who you’re laying next to. What the hell happened last night?”

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“Morning sunshine,” Jongdae greeted.

 

“How are you so energetic right now?” Sehun groaned, rubbing his aching head.

 

“I’m not the one that got shit faced drunk last night,” the elder snorted.

 

Jongin and Sehun sat down at the kitchen counter, Kris was making coffee and Jongdae was frying up some eggs and bacon.

 

“You two feeling okay? Last time I saw Baek and Jongdae were hauling your asses’ up the stairs.”

 

“Well we’re not dead,” Jongin said.

 

“ _Yet,_ ” Sehun sighed.

 

“Speaking of Baek, where is he?”

 

“Right here!” Baekhyun chirped as he walked into the room.

 

“I’m surprised you’re up so early,” Jongdae chuckled.

 

“Me too, especially with you two keeping me up all night! I felt like I was baby sitting…” he pouted.

 

They all bursted into laughter, when Kris calmed down he noticed a dark mark on Baekhyun’s neck.

 

“Uh Baek, who were you hooking up with last night?”

 

“What? What are you talking about?” They all turned to Baekhyun, puzzled looks etched on their faces.

 

“You have a hickey right there.” Kris pointed to his neck.

 

Baekhyun quickly slapped a hand over the hickey and flushed. Flashblacks of last night came flooding back into his mind, he didn't think Jongin actually left a mark!

 

“Did you give him a hickey?!” Jongin hissed into the blonde’s ear.

 

“No, did you?!” Sehun whispered back.

 

“No, of course not!”

“Oh u-uhm, J-Jongin gave it to me actually...While he was drunk!” Baekhyun quickly explained, “He didn’t really know what he was doing and uh yeah.”

Sehun looked at his best friend with a raised brow. “

Okay...so...maybe I did…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things got...spicy


	14. More Competition

“How was the party?” Kyungsoo asked, looking up from his textbook.

 

“It was fun, you should’ve came with us!” Baekhyun piped.  

 

“I told you I was studying for the test,” Kyungsoo rolled his eyes.

 

“Nerd…”

 

“But who got a perfect score?”

 

Baekhyun glared at his best friend. “I only missed three questions! Jongdae’s the one that got a C!”

 

“HEY! Leave me out of your argument I didn’t do anything to deserve this,” Jongdae whined.

 

It was Tuesday and the three friends were in Kyungsoo's living room doing homework. It had been two days after the party, and Baekhyun had barely heard from Jongin or Sehun.

 

The two had to miss all their Monday classes, opting to stay home since they couldn’t stop throwing up, they really regretted drinking so much the night before.

 

“Baek why are you wearing a scarf,” Kyungsoo asked, quirking a brow, “It’s like seventy degrees outside.”

 

“N-No reason,” Baekhyun said, fiddling with the scarf around his neck.

 

“Why don’t you tell him what happened on Saturday, Baek?” Jongdae snickered.

 

“What happened…”

 

“Nothing! It’s not a big deal and shut up Jongdae!” Baekhyun slapped the other on the arm and pushed his textbook off the coffee table. Jongdae pouted, muttering ‘meanie’ as he picked up his papers and book from the floor.

 

Kyungsoo eyed him suspiciously before quickly ripping the fabric off of the boy’s neck. His jaw dropped when he spotted the dark bruise.

 

“What the fuck, did you hook with someone? I can’t believe you were trying to hide that thing, who’s the one that said we were best friends and we have to tell each other everything?” Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes at the other.

 

Baekhyun sighed. “No I did not hook up with someone! And I wasn’t really trying to hide it I was just...not telling you…”

 

“Which means you were trying to hide it…” Jongdae interjected, earning him a scowl from the other.

 

“Why weren’t you going to tell me? Who gave it to you? Was it against your will? Was it that Chanyeol guy? Did he hurt you?” Kyungsoo interrogated.

 

“I’m fine _mother_. I didn’t wanna tell you because I knew you would react like this! And I didn’t want you to freak out because it was kind of an accident and it’s really not a big deal. And no it was not Chanyeol, it was uhm, Jongin.”

 

His felt his face slightly warm up as he recalled the events from Sunday night.  

 

“Okay...Not that I don’t trust Jongin or anything but how the hell does one _accidentally_ give someone else a hickey?”

 

“You know, he was drunk...like _really_ drunk. He didn’t even know what he was doing. I told you, it’s not a big deal.”

 

“Tell him about what happened with Sehun!” Jongdae spoke up, a mischievous look in his eyes.

 

Baekhyun scoffed, throwing a crumpled up ball of paper at the other, hitting him square on the face.

 

“What happened with Sehun…”

 

“They _kissed_ ,” Jongdae smirked.

 

“What?!”

 

“Only because _you_ pushed him into me!”

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“Come on Soo, I said I was sorry!”

 

“I can’t believe you were trying to hide all that from me,” Kyungsoo mumbled under his breath as they walked out of class.

 

“Kyungsoooooo, _come on, please forgive me_ ,” Baekhyun pouted and gave giving his best friend puppy dog eyes. Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and uncrossed his arms.

 

“Fine,” he huffed, “But you better not do it next time!”. The other’s eyes immediately lit up, almost tackling his friend down when he jumped forward to hug him.

 

“I won’t, I promise! I gotta go meet Jungkook in the library but I’ll text you later, ‘kay?”

 

Kyungsoo nodded and walked off, but stopped when he heard his name being called from behind him.

 

“Oh, there are you are. I was wondering why you weren’t around to annoy me,” he joked.

 

“Yah! So rude…I don’t know why you guys keep attacking me. I have done nothing to deserve this treatment!” Jongdae whined. The other chuckled, rolling his eyes at his friend's dramatic outburst.

 

They walked down the hall while Jongdae rambled on about all the funny things that happened at the party, like how he and Kris scared Tao during truth or dare.

 

He stopped talking when he noticed the two young men walking toward them.

 

“Hey Jongin, Sehun,” he greeted. They all exchanged hello’s, Jongdae told the two how he was surprised they were still alive especially since they had been stuck in bed for past couple of days.

 

“Yeah Baek and Dae were telling me about it yesterday. Sounds like the night got really...interesting,” Kyungsoo chuckled.

 

“I told him how Jongin gave him a big fat hickey on his neck,” Jongdae smirked. Jongin cleared his throat, awkwardly scratching the back of his head as Sehun shot him a dirty look.

 

“A-ah yeah...We had way too much to drink…” he said as he forced out a laugh.

 

“Speaking of Baek, where is he?” Sehun asked, obviously trying to change the subject from Baekhyun and Jongin.

 

“He’s tutoring someone in the library right now,” Kyungsoo answered.

 

“Oh yeah, huh. I forgot he tutored after class,” Jongin said.

 

“Yeah he’s tutoring some kid from the high school around here. Pretty sure he just stuck around ‘cause he likes Baek though,”  Jongdae snickered.

 

The younger two’s ears instantly perked up. “What do you mean?” The blonde questioned.

 

“Baek’s been tutoring him for a few months. I think at first he actually needed the help but now he just sticks around ‘cause he has a crush on him. He’s always super nice to him and subtly flirts but Baek’s too clueless to realize,” Kyungsoo chuckled.

 

“Of course he is…” Jongin muttered to himself. Sehun and Jongin excused themselves, saying how they were going to go surprise Baekhyun. Kyungsoo and Jongdae continued down the hall, making their way to Kyungsoo’s car.

 

They argued over what restaurant to eat lunch at, Kyungsoo eventually gave in to the other’s craving for fried chicken, for the third time this week, after not wanting to hear anymore of his whining.

 

“Who do you think looks better with Baek? Jongin or Sehun?” Jongdae asked, trying to change the CD, he was sick of listening to drama soundtracks.

 

“I don’t know, why?” Kyungsoo shrugged, slapping the other’s hand away. Jongdae winced, slumping back into his seat. He didn’t even know why he tried when he knew how Kyungsoo didn’t like anyone messing with his music.

 

“Because they’re totally crushing on him!”

 

Kyungsoo quirked a brow, still keeping his eyes on the road. “What?” he scoffed.

 

“You seriously didn’t notice?! God you’re just as oblivious as Baek.”

 

“ _No one’s_ as oblivious as that idiot,” Kyungsoo deadpanned, “How are you so sure anyway?”

 

“I confronted Sehun about it and I can just tell Jongin does too. You should’ve seen his face when Baek got dared to kiss him on the cheek. He looked like he just won the lottery or something,” the other laughed.

 

“Mhm…This outta be interesting.”

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

They made it resturant and got in line while bickering over whose turn it was to pay for lunch.

 

Kyungsoo demanded Jongdae paid since he was the one that wanted to eat fried chicken in the first place. The latter reluctantly gave in, whining about how it wasn’t fair because he paid last time.

 

“I’ll pay.” A deeper voice suddenly came from behind them. They both turned around, Jongdae smiled when he saw who the owner of the voice was.

 

“Oh hey Kris! Fancy meeting you here. This is my best friend Kyungsoo, Kyungsoo this is Kris. He’s the one that threw the party.”

 

Kris cleared his throat and quickly ran his hand through his dyed hair before replying.

 

“Nice to meet you, Kyungsoo. And uh yeah I was picking up food for Tao. I’ll pay for your guys’ food too,” he said.

 

“No it’s fine! I’ll just make Soo pay for it next time,” Jongdae grinned, elbowing his friend, who rolled his eyes at him.

 

“No it’s okay, I want to…”

 

Jongdae thought about it for a few seconds before nodding.

 

“Fine, but I’ll buy you lunch next time okay?”  He smiled up at the other, Kris bit back his smile and coolly nodded.

 

“Oh uhm yeah speaking of that, I was wondering if you were free Saturday.”

 

“I think so, did you wanna get lunch then?” Jongdae innocently asked.

 

Kyungsoo looked at his friend, giving him a ‘are you kidding me right now’  kind of look.

 

“Yeah uhm like a- uh a date,” Kris nervously stuttered.

 

The shorter immediately felt his cheeks warm up. “W-What?”

 

Kyungsoo bit back the laugh that almost spilled from his mouth. “Uh I think he just asked you out,” he said, thoroughly amused that his usually loud mouthed friend was now speechless.

 

“O-Oh you are?” Jongdae asked.

 

“Uh yeah,” the taller breathily chuckled.

 

“He’d love to, right Jongdae?” Kyungsoo snickered, nudging his friend’s arm. Jongdae quickly nodded, the red tint still on the apple of his cheeks.

 

Kris smiled widely, snapping out of his daze when he heard his name being called out from the cashier, notifying him that his order was ready.

 

He grabbed his order and turned back the two, giving Jongdae a cool smirk before turning around to leave. He ended up bumping into a man that was coming through the doors, dropping all of his food.

 

Kyungsoo doubled over in laughter, tears rolled down his face as Jongdae stood there in shock.

 

“A-Are you okay?” Jongdae asked, hurrying over to help the taller up.

 

“Uh- Yeah i’m fine,” Kris awkwardly laughed.

 

“Do you want me to buy you more food?”

 

“N-No it’s okay uhm chicken isn’t really my style anyway. I’ll uh- text you tonight!” the taller said before dashing out the door.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

Meanwhile, as Sehun and Jongin walked off to find Baekhyun, Sehun’s phone vibrated; he furrowed his brows in confusion when saw who the text was from.

 

_WingMan( ◞･౪･): Good luck! Im rooting for u_

_To WingMan( ◞･౪･): who is this?_

_WingMan( ◞･౪･): Jongdae_

_WingMan( ◞･౪･): who else would it be idiot_

_To WingMan( ◞･౪･): how did i get ur number ???_

_WingMan( ◞･౪･): I put it in when you were shit faced drunk @ the party ;P_

 

The blonde let out a breathy chuckle before locking his phone and shoving it back into his back pocket.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

The two found their way to the library, the tables were filled with students studying and doing homework, some were dozing off. The scanned the room for the elder and stopped when they spotted a brown haired boy with glasses perfectly framing his face.

 

He was explaining something in the textbook in front of him to a younger looking boy who they assumed was the high schooler Kyungsoo and Jongdae had told them about.

 

The boy was gazing intently at the elder, Jongin and Sehun couldn’t even blame the boy, Baekhyun was too cute not to watch. They walked over to the elder, Jongin put his hands over Baekhyun’s eyes, causing the elder to stop what he was doing.

 

“Hey, you,” the younger said. Baekhyun pulled the other’s hands away and looked up to see who had interrupted his tutoring session.

 

“Jongin, Sehunnie! What are you guys doing here?” Baekhyun excitedly chirped.

 

“We just wanted to come and surprise you,” Sehun smiled.

 

“Ah, well I am pretty surprised,” Baekhyun chuckled, “This Jungkook, by the way. I tutor him every Wednesday. Jungkook these are my friends, Sehun and Jongin.”

 

The two nodded at the younger, forcing a smile on their faces. Jungkook quietly scoffed before greeting the two with a fake smile.

 

“Nice to meet you guys, Baekhyun hyung’s told me about you,” Jungkook smirked, casually wrapping his arm around the elder’s shoulders.

 

“Yah who do you think you’re touching so casually, you little brat.” Baekhyun playfully elbowed the younger.

 

He failed to notice the tension between the three younger boys even though they weren’t so subtly glaring at each other.

 

“Well, we’ll leave you to your studying now. See you later hyung?” Sehun smiled at the elder.

 

Baekhyun nodded, “Bye Sehunnie, bye Jongin!”

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“God did you see his smug little face? I hate him,” Sehun frowned.

 

“You barely know him,” Jongin scoffed, “Are you sure you’re not just mad because he calls Baek hyung too?”

 

“Shut up. And don’t act like you’re so innocent, I saw you mad dogging him when put his arm around Baek’s shoulder.”

 

“Whatever,” Jongin huffed in annoyance.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

The two made a trip to the grocery store that night to purchase more instant ramen, though they mostly came there just to see a certain cashier.

 

“You two really need to stop eating these so much, it’s not healthy,” Baekhyun grimaced as he checked out the packets of noodles.

 

“You say that everytime I come here,” Jongin said, amused.  
  


“And you never listen!” Baekhyun sighed, dramatically shaking his head.

 

Sehun and Jongin fought the urge to pinched the elder’s cheeks, they could never resist his adorable pout.

 

He was like a little puppy asking for attention, ad they were more than happy to give him that attention.

 

“You wanna come over Sunday night? We can watch that zombie movie you wanted to watch,” Jongin asked.

 

“I would, but I’m gonna be tutoring Jungkook all night.”

 

Sehun and Jongin looked at each other, Sehun cleared his throat before replying. “I thought you only tutored him on Wednesdays?”

 

“Yeah usually, but he asked me to tutor him Sunday night too. He said he had an important test coming up.”

 

The blonde gave his best friend a knowing look, Jongin sighed and Baekhyun looked at them confused.

 

“Is that all you guys are doing?” Jongin asked.

 

“I think he’s gonna come over earlier and we’re gonna go eat or something,” the elder said.

 

“Just the two of you?” the blonde questioned. Baekhyun nodded, putting the packets of noodles into bags for the two.

 

“Hyung, I think he likes you,” Sehun said softly.

 

“What? What do you mean?”

 

“Baek he was obviously flirting with you today,” Jongin chimed in.

 

“Guys I’ve been tutoring him for months, I’m pretty sure I would know if he was flirting with me or not,” Baekhyun chuckled.

 

“Uh huh…” the younger two chorused, exchanging frustrated and tired glances. They both knew that it was going to be an eventful weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a little chenris...bc i think theyre cute lmao


	15. Spicy Tuna Roll

Jongin and Sehun managed to squeeze some information from Jongdae about where Baekhyun and Jungkook were gonna go on Sunday. It didn’t take much convincing since Jongdae was kinda, sorta trying to get Sehun and Baekhyun together.

 

So now, the two younger boys were crouched behind a bush, watching as Baekhyun and Jungkook walked side by side in the park. Jongin mumbled something about them being a little close for his liking, Sehun swore he saw the high schooler try to grab the elder’s hand.

 

“I can’t believe you talked me into doing this,” Sehun mumbled.

 

“Oh whatever, as if you weren’t curious about what they were doing,” the other scoffed.

 

In his defense, he wasn’t the one that came up with the idea. When Luhan texted him last night asking him how things were going with Baekhyun, he had told him about his new competition.

 

It was Luhan that came up with the bright idea of stalking the two on their ‘study date.’

 

Jongin told him it was creepy and that there was no way in hell he would do that but ended up going along with the idea anyway when the other taunted him, saying that a high schooler would steal his true love away if he didn’t do something.

 

Though Jongin thought that ‘true love’ part was a bit dramatic, but this was Luhan and he really wasn’t at all surprised by his friend’s melodramatic speech.

 

“I mean of course I was curious, but I didn’t think you’d be crazy enough to follow him,” the blonde hissed.

 

“Well you didn’t have to come,” Jongin sassed, effectively shutting up the other.

 

They watched as Baekhyun and Jungkook walk to an ice cream truck from behind the bush, they received stares from passersbyers but brushed them off since making sure their crush didn’t get hit on was way more important than looking strange.

 

They watched as the two sat down together on a bench, noting that the younger was sitting way too close for comfort.

 

Jongin scoffed a little too loud when Jungkook swiped his thumb over the elder’s lower lip, wiped off some ice cream, and slipped it between his own, licking it clean.

 

The elder was obviously flustered by the act, his cheeks turning that pretty pink Jongin and Sehun loved so much.

 

The two followed closely behind Baekhyun and the other as they walked to the mall, making sure the couple didn’t see them.

 

Jongin’s phone suddenly vibrated, he pulled it out of his back pocket to see that it was Luhan who texted him.

 

_Lulu: hows it goin ;))_

 

Jongin rolled his eyes.

 

_To Lulu: fine_

 

He was about to slip his phone back into his pocket when it vibrated again.

 

_Lulu: whats goin on rn??_

 

_To Lulu: theyre going to eat sushi_

 

_LuLu: go cockblock !!!!_

_To Lulu: im not going to go up to them_

_To Lulu: thats gonna look sketchy_

_Lulu: that kid is gonna steal your man away with a spicy tuna roll !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

_To Lulu: goodbye_

 

He sighed, putting his phone on silent before turning his attention back to Baekhyun.

 

He and Jungkook were standing in line at a restaurant, the elder was happily talking about something and Jongin and Sehun could practically see hearts in the high schooler’s eyes.

 

They nearly lost it when the younger had his hand rested on Baekhyun’s back as he guided him through the crowd, his hand slowly but surely trailed down, getting closer and closer to the elder’s ass.

 

Sehun’s eyes widened, his jaw clenched his anger as he got out from behind the wall they were hiding from.

 

Jongin repeatedly whispered his name, urging him to come back or else he would blow their cover.

 

He groaned in defeat when he realized Sehun wouldn’t listen to him and followed after him.

 

They walked up to the elder, purposely bumping into him, earning them a glare from the protective high schooler.

 

“Oh hey, hyung. Weird seeing you here,” Sehun said, trying to sound as casual as possible.

 

“Oh hey! You guys are eating here too? What a coincidence,” the elder smiled at him.

 

“Yeah. What a coincidence…” Jungkook quietly scoffed, rolling his eyes.

 

“Can we join you guys?” Jongin asked.

 

“Sure! Is it okay with you?” The elder looked up at Jungkook with his droopy puppy dog eyes.

 

The younger forced a smile and nodded. He scowled when Jongin shot him a mocking smirk that Baekhyun mistook for a friendly smile.

 

“Sehun I thought you didn’t like sushi?” the elder asked.

 

 _He remembered._ The younger smiled, feeling a light fluttering in his heart. “Yeah but Jongin wanted some, I’ll probably just get some rice or something.”

 

Baekhyun nodded and the four of them stood in line, none of them talked except for the eldest who rambled on excitedly about a drama he had been watching.

 

The younger three gladly listened, watching him talk in adoration.

 

Once they were they were seated, the lunch went on without a hitch.

 

The younger three managed to act civil with each other, not wanting to raise any suspicions, though they doubt that Baekhyun would even notice.

 

Sehun and Jongin reluctantly let Baekhyun and Jungkook go their separate way, as much as they would love to follow them back to the elder’s apartment, they knew they couldn’t.

 

The two young men went back to Sehun’s apartment and slumped onto the couch as they sulked.

 

“What do you think they’re doing right now?” Sehun asked.

 

“I don’t know. I don’t even think I want to know,” the other sighed.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“So you guys went bowling?” Baekhyun asked.

 

It was Monday night and they were currently in the bubble tea shop that Jongdae worked at, Baekhyun and Kyungsoo usually stopped by around closing time to keep him company while he cleaned up everything and locked up.

 

It was dark outside, the streets were mostly empty, along with the shop with the exception of the three friends.

 

Jongdae was wiping down the counter as the other two stacked the chairs and picked up any fallen straw wrappers or napkins.

 

Jongdae was in the middle of telling the two about his date with Kris from the night before.

 

“Mhm hmm! He’s really bad to be honest, but he was really cute,” Jongdae giggled, “He kept tryna impress me but kept getting gutterballs…”

 

“Sounds like an idiot, perfect for you,” Kyungsoo chimed in as he sat down at the counter.

 

“Shut up Soo, you bitter little man.”

 

“I still can’t believe you’re going out with Kris...I was not expecting that,” Baekhyun exhaled.

 

“Me neither...I didn’t even know he liked me.”

 

“That’s because you guys are clueless.”

 

Jongdae and Baekhyun both rolled their eyes at Kyungsoo.

 

“He told me that Chanyeol really liked you Baek.”

 

Baekhyun sighed, “Can we not talk about that?”

 

“Sure, let’s talk about your date with Jungkook. How was it?” Jongdae smirked.

 

“It wasn’t a date!”

 

“Baek, he obviously likes you and he was definitely expecting it to be a date,” Kyungsoo said.

 

Baekhyun tossed all the straw wrappers he found into the trash before taking a sit next to his best friend.

 

“Why does everyone keep saying that? I’m pretty sure he would’ve asked me out by now if he did, I’ve been tutoring him for months!”

 

“God you’re so dense,” Kyungsoo groaned.

 

“Am not. And it was not a date, besides Sehun and Jongin ran into his while we were in line for sushi and they joined us so it couldn’t have been a date anyway.”

 

“Really? They just happened to be there too?” Kyungsoo questioned, looking at Jongdae with a raised brow.

 

Jongdae stifled a laugh, nodding to confirm his friend’s suspicions.

 

Baekhyun nodded and got up, taking the rag Jongdae was using to clean down the counter to wipe down the tables in the shop.

 

“Did you know that Jennifer Aniston has itchy eyes?” Baekhyun asked.

 

“What are you even talking about?” Kyungsoo asked as Jongdae laughed at him.

 

“I saw a commercial about her having itchy eyes,” the other shrugged.

 

“You’re so weird,” Kyungsoo muttered under his breath, shaking his head. _Someone please help Jongin and Sehun..._

 


	16. Tender Love {Ending 1}

Jongin went to sleep Sunday night feeling like absolute shit. He spent the entire night sulking in his bed, images of Jungkook and Baekhyun making out on Baekhyun’s couch flooded his mind.

 

He knew, or at least he was somewhat sure, the elder didn’t like Jungkook but he couldn’t stop the thoughts of the younger somehow seducing Baek out of his head.

 

He had vented to Luhan for a couple hours last night and he assured him that nothing was going on, but it still wasn’t enough for Jongin.

 

The next day, Luhan showed up at his door, knocking insistently until Jongin let him.

 

After letting Luhan in, the younger returned to the living room where he resumed lying face first into his couch cushion.

 

“Dude, you need to calm down,” Luhan said as he toed his shoes off.

 

“I doubt anything happened! You said Baek doesn’t even like him.”

 

The elder threw his jacket onto the kitchen counter before walking over to couch and sat on top of Jongin's sprawled out legs.

 

“But what if something happened?” Jongin asked in a muffled voice.

 

Luhan turned on the television and the room was instantly filled with the loud cheering of soccer fans.

 

“Come on man...Nothing happened! I can’t watch this anymore,” Luhan groaned.

 

“I’ll help you okay? Just stop acting so pathetic.”

 

Jongin twisted his head awkwardly to look at his friend who was too engrossed in the match to see him staring.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

Luhan let out a long sigh and rolled his eyes. “I mean, I’ll help you with Baek. I’ll be your wingman! You obviously can’t do shit by yourself...Let’s face it, you need my professional help.”

 

“Professional?” Jongin scoffed.

 

“Yes. That’s what you need, professional help,” Luhan turned to smirk at Jongin.

 

Pushing Luhan off his legs, Jongin sat up squinted his eyes at the other.

 

“Why do you wanna help me? What about Sehun?”

 

Luhan shrugged, “I think you and Baek are cuter. Plus Sehun broke my iPod that one time at Kris’s house.”

 

Jongin raised an eyebrow at the other.

 

“That was Tao,” he said, amused.

 

Just as the home team scored a goal, Luhan let out a loud  “I KNEW IT!” before proceeding to call Tao a “ fucking liar”.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

Jongin’s truck pulled into the driveway of the white house. Baekhyun quickly hopped out of the passenger seat and looked at the unfamiliar home.

 

“So Tao lives here with Luhan?” the elder asked.

 

Jongin hummed in acknowledgement of Baek's question and before they could reach the front door, it swung open to reveal a very happy Luhan.

 

“Heeeyyy guys! Glad you could make it to our _soirée_.”

 

Baekhyun giggled as he stepped into the house, thanking Lu Han for inviting him as he took in his surroundings.

 

It wasn't a very big gathering; there were a few people scattered throughout the living room and a couple making out on the staircase.

 

Over the music he could hear people laughing and cheering from what he assumed was the kitchen area.

 

Tao was sitting on the couch with a girl on his lap, his face in the crook of her neck.

 

Despite it only being an hour into the party, the house already reeked of alcohol.

 

Jongin was quickly whisked away by Luhan into the kitchen against his will, leaving an awkward Baekhyun behind in the living room.

 

The elder scanned the room looking for a familiar face, he really wished Sehun was here but the younger was out of town for his older brother’s wedding.

 

Baekhyun looked for a corner to hide in since his search for someone he knew was unsuccessful, but his ears perked when he heard someone yell his name.

 

He turned to the front door where he saw Jongdae and Kris waving at him as they walked over.

 

“Jongdae!” Baekhyun said, “I thought you weren’t coming.”

 

“I wasn’t going to, but Kris is a big baby and didn’t want to go without me,” Jongdae chuckled.

 

Kris playfully elbowed his arm.“I am not. Is it a crime to want to spend time with my boyfriend?”

 

“Yeah yeah yeah, whatever. Are you sure it’s not just ‘cause you need someone to drive you after you get drunk?”

 

“Of course not, I wanted you to come with me,” Kris said as he wrapped his arms around the other’s waist, resting his chin on Jongdae’s shoulder.

 

Baekhyun made a loud scoffing sound and eyed the couple in disgust. “God will you guys please get a room. Please stop flirting in front of me, my eyes can’t take it!” he joked, dramatically covering his eyes causing Jongdae to roll his eyes.

 

“Speaking of flirting, where’s Jongin?” Baekhyun cocked his head to the side and gave Jongdae a confused look.

 

“What’s that suppose to mean?”

 

Jongdae waved his hand as if dismissing the thought.

 

“It's nothing, cutie. Where his he?”

 

Baekhyun scoffed at the nickname.“Luhan dragged him somewhere into the kitchen”.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

“I can't believe you dragged me into another one of your plans.”

 

After Luhan brought Jongin into the kitchen, the other rambled on about how he had a genius plan to get him and Baekhyun together.

 

Jongin tried to talk him out of it, though that's always useless because once Luhan had a plan, there was no stopping him.

 

Luhan beemed up at Jongin before turning down the music and loudly declaring that it was game time.

 

Everyone  gathered in the living room room, and Jongin reluctantly followed Lu Han out of the kitchen then joined Baekhyun, Kris, and Jongdae on the couch.

 

“Alright so since it’s my house, I get to pick the game. And tonight I feel like playing...seven minutes in heaven,” Luhan said with a mischievous glint in his eye.

 

After someone fetched some paper and pens, everyone wrote their names down on and dropped their slip into Luhan's hat.

 

The first two people Luhan drew was a girl Baekhyun recognized the girl from one of Kris’s parties, Tiffany or something, and a guy he had never seen before.

 

Luhan started the timer and giggling was heard from inside the closet.  

 

The girl’s friends were all whistling and laughing because according to one of them, Tiffany had been crushing on the guy for awhile now. The timer rang loudly and Tiffany and the stranger emerged from the closet with red faces and disheveled clothes.

 

The next two people picked were Jongdae and a guy named Jeup.

 

“Uhm yeah I don’t think so,” Kris said and before Luhan could object, he immediately stood up and grabbed his boyfriend’s hand, pulling him towards the closet.

 

“I really don’t give a shit about your rules, Luhan. No one’s kissing my boyfriend except me.”

 

Luhan pouted  but started the timer as soon as the door was shut.

 

Jongin and Baekhyun both looked at each other and laughed.

 

Luhan really should’ve seen that coming.

 

Seven minutes later, the couple comes out, Kris with a smirk on his face and Jongdae with his hair all messed up and lips red and slightly swollen.  

 

“You two are so gross,” Luhan scoffed. “Anyway, next is Baekhyun and...Jongin!”

 

 

Baekhyun eyes widened, a bit surprised he got partnered up with Jongin but then smiled sweetly at the younger.

 

Jongin swore he felt his heart do somersaults.

 

They made their way to the closet, Luhan winked at Jongin, giving him a thumbs up before closing the door.

 

The two stood close together in the tiny, dark room, all the jackets and shoe boxes not giving them much personal space.

 

“This brings back memories huh?” Jongin teased, referring to the time they were hiding from his fangirl in the janitor’s closet.

 

The elder chuckled and playfully hit his arm, Jongin couldn’t see but he knew the elder’s cheeks were probably that pretty shade of pink he loves.

 

“So uhm, how was your date with Jungkook after we left the restaurant? Did-uh Did anything happen?” the younger asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.

 

“I told you it wasn’t a date!” Baekhyun sighed, “And uhm, yeah he told me he- he liked me.”

 

Jongin felt his heart drop, he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to know what happened after that.

 

“Oh. So what did you say? Do, uh, you  like him back?” Jongin asked.

 

His stomach was churning and he suddenly found it hard to breathe in the confined space.

 

“Of course I don’t! He’s like my little brother. I told him I was sorry and that I didn’t think of him that way.”

 

The younger let out a breath he was holding in, “Oh, that’s a relief.”

 

“Why? Were you jealous?” Baekhyun teased.

 

Jongin swallowed before replying, “Yeah, I was.”

 

The elder inhaled sharply, taken aback by the younger’s response. “W-What?”

 

Jongin took a step forward, lessening the already small space between him and the elder, causing Baekhyun to back up against the door.

 

“I admit I was jealous, I didn’t want you to go out with him. I couldn't even sleep that night after I got home from the restaurant because I couldn’t stop thinking about what you two were doing.”

 

Baekhyun opened his mouth to speak but he couldn’t form any words.

 

He felt paralyzed under the younger’s stare, his heart was beating so hard in his chest he hoped the other couldn’t hear.

 

He was just glad it was dark in there because he was sure his face was as red as a tomato right now.

 

He broke eye contact, looking down at their shoes, almost choking on his own saliva when he suddenly felt a warm hand cupping his left cheek.

 

“The thought of him kissing you pisses me off,” Jongin said in a low voice.

 

Baekhyun felt the younger’s hot breath on his neck, he suddenly felt very hot.

 

Jongin's hand slide to his nape and he moved his face closer to elder’s until their lips were an inch away from touching.

 

“I’m gonna kiss you now okay?” the younger said quietly.

 

The elder nodded, the words getting stuck in his throat. Jongin tilted his head, darting his tongue out to wet his lip before closing the space between them.

 

Baekhyun never felt his heart beat so fast before in his life.

 

The younger moved his lips slowly against his, he let out a cute little squeak when Jongin nibbled on his lower lip.

 

Jongin couldn’t help but smile against the elder’s lips when he opened his mouth to give him access to his tongue.

 

The kiss quickly got heated as Jongin moved his mouth roughly against Baekhyun’s, he wrapped his free arm around the elder’s waist, pulling him in closer flush against his body.

 

The elder whimpered, not being able to keep up with Jongin’s fast and rough pace, he felt so hot, everywhere Jongin touched made him feel like he was on fire.

 

The younger broke the kiss to trail kisses down the elder's neck, stopping along the way to suck on the soft skin, leaving light hickies.

 

“ _J-Jongin_ ,” the elder whimpered.

 

“ _Fuck_ , you drive me crazy,” Jongin panted in the crook of Baekhyun’s neck.  

 

They both froze when they heard Luhan’s voice from the other side of the door, informing them that their time was up.

 

“Sorry I didn’t mean to be so rough I just-uh yeah,” Jongin chuckled, licking his lips.

 

“I-It’s okay,” Baekhyun said, trying to compose himself.

 

He turned around to open the door but then stopped, turning around to face the younger.

 

“By the way, I l-like you too,” he blurted before quickly opening the door and running out. Jongin didn’t even try to hide his smile as he

walked out the closet, trying to ignore Luhan’s and Jongdae’s whistling.

 

“I told you my plan would work!” Luhan excitedly grinned.

 

“Oh shut up,” Jongin said before smiling at Baekhyun, sliding his hand into the elder’s smaller one.

 

Baekhyun smiled down at their intertwined hands before casting a confused look at Luhan.

 

“Plan? What plan?”

 

Instead of answering Luhan erupted into a fit of laughter.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

Later that night, Jongin had let Baekhyun crash at his place because he drank too much during truth or dare and wasn't sober enough to take care of himself if Jongin dropped him home.

 

Baekhyun was now sleeping in Jongin's bed in one of his favorite sweatshirts as Jongin watched late night cartoons in the living room in order to distract him from his less than pure thoughts.

 

He was halfway asleep when he felt his asleep when he felt his phone vibrate and flipped it over to see it was Sehun calling.

 

“Hello? What's up, it's almost two in the morning is everything alright?”

 

“I just got back from home from the wedding and I found an interesting voice mail from Luhan...”

 

 _That fucking bastard,_ Jongin thought to himself. Trying to sound as casual as possible, Jongin asked about the contents of the voice mail.

 

“Well first off he was drunk, and second, I could barely make out the words, but apparently you and Baekhyun are a thing now?”

 

Jongin could hear his heartbeat in his ears but he answered with a low “yes” and waited for Sehun to end their friendship.

 

After a moment of silence, Sehun's tired sounding laughter came through the phone.

 

“I should have seen it coming, you are irresistible. Congrats man, you won. I'm happy for you.”

 

“You're not gonna chop off my balls?” Jongin asked, stunned at his best friend’s reaction.

 

“Ha! No, I'll admit that I'm a little sad it isn't me but, you can't manipulate feelings right? I bet you he fell for you after you kept coming back for more bananas than was humanly necessary. I really am happy for you dude. You deserve to be happy.”

 

Jongin let out a relieved chuckle.

 

“Thanks man."

 

"What are you thanking me for you goof," Sehun chuckled.

 

"No really, thanks Sehun. For being such a good friend."

 

"Don't you mean _best_  friend?"

 

"Yeah yeah yeah," Jongin laughed, "so, you wanna come over tomorrow after you rest up for dinner so I can formally introduce you to my boyfriend? You're over at your sister’s right now, right?”

 

“Count me in. You better make it worth my time, the wedding food was terrible and I need a proper makeup meal. ”

 

Both friends laughed and said goodnight and as Jongin put down his phone, he heard footsteps padding towards him and turned to see Baekhyun rubbing his eyes like a child as he emerged from the bedroom.

 

“Jongin? Are you coming to bed? I wanna sleep with you.”

 

Before Jongin could get up, Baekhyun plopped down on top of him, smelling like Jongin's body wash. Jongin chuckled and kissed the top of Baekhyun's head.

 

“You don't want to go back to my bed?”

 

Baekhyun gave Jongin a weak shake of his head.

 

“Too tired… to move… just squeeze in tight with me,” he giggled.  

 

Without further objection, Jongin wrapped his arms around Baekhyun, careful not to lift the giant tee shirt.

 

“Night Baek. Sleep well.”

 

“Night, banana brains,” the elder tiredly chuckled.

 

Jongin tried to sit up to get a look at Baekhyun's face, but a soft snore informed him that his boyfriend was now fast asleep.

 

He'll have to get him back in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for all the kaibaek shippers <3 
> 
> the closet scene made me so emo why can't my life be like that smh


	17. First Love {Ending 2}

Students poured out from the classroom doors after the professor concluded his lecture.

 

Baekhyun yawned as he dragged himself out of the room, lugging his backpack with one hand, and a half empty cup of coffee in the other hand.

 

It was finals week, which meant Baekhyun was spending most of his days in a crowded library with other students also studying their asses off.

 

He was beyond exhausted given he had only been getting a few hours of sleep every night with all the studying on top of work.

 

He hadn’t seen Sehun or Jongin in a couple weeks, he figured they were busy studying with finals too; still, he really missed seeing them drop by the store every week.

 

He pulled out his phone from his back pocket to check the time, but sighed upon seeing that there were still a couple hours before he had to go to work.

 

“I guess I can go to the library ‘til then,” he muttered to himself.

 

He started walking down the call when his vision was suddenly blocked by a pair of large hands.

 

“What the-” The brunette immediately spun around to see who it was.

 

“Hey, hyung.”

 

“Sehun!” Baekhyun chirped, jumping into the younger’s arms.

 

The younger laughed lightly, “Missed me?”

 

“Of course I did idiot, I haven’t seen you in weeks. Where’s Jongin? And how did you even know what class I have right now, stalker.”

 

He continued to walk, the younger followed after him while holding out his hand to offer to carry the elder’s backpack.

 

Baekhyun declined, but Sehun grabbed the backpack anyway, slinging it over his shoulder as Baekhyun tried to hide his smile.

 

“First of all, I am not a stalker. Jongdae told me where you were. Second, Jongin’s stuck at home writing a paper that’s due in like an hour, that idiot just started it today.”

 

“Of course he did,” Baekhyun chuckled. “You should’ve made him start it earlier! What kind of best friend are you?”

 

“Don’t you think I tried?! I am a very good best friend for your information,” Sehun pouted.

 

They walked through the building side by side, their hands occasionally brushing against each other.

 

Sehun had a strong urge to entwine his fingers with the elder’s pretty ones but decided against it.

 

The two laughed together as they walked when Baekhyun suddenly stopped in his tracks.

 

“Oh god,” Baekhyun hissed, stepping behind the younger.

 

“What? What’s wrong? Who are you hiding from?”

 

“That guy walking this way, he asked me out last week and I told him no but he won’t leave me alone,” he whispered, ducking behind the taller.

 

“What the fuck? Hyung, why didn’t you tell me about this sooner? Do you want me to say something to him?” Sehun asked as he took a step forward, anger evident his in voice.

 

Baekhyun’s eyes widened as he quickly grabbed the younger’s shirt, pulling him back. “No! I didn’t tell you because it isn’t a big deal, I can handle it myself. I don’t want you doing something stupid and get in trouble.”

 

“Not a big deal? If he’s not leaving you alone then-”

 

“Sshh! He’s coming, what should we do? Should we hide somewhere or-”

 

His rambling was cut short when he found himself being pushed against the wall, a pair of soft lips were suddenly against his.

 

The voice in the distance faded and all that Baekhyun would focus on were the two large hands on either sides of his face.

 

Sehun delicately cupped the elders cheeks, but moved roughly against Baekhyun's lips.

 

The momentary bliss passed and Baekhyun widened his eyes and felt blood rush to his face.

 

After a moment, Sehun slowly pulled away, staring into Baekhyun’s eyes as he licked his lips.

 

Baekhyun couldn’t do anything but stare as he tried to digest what just happened.

 

“Oh- Uhm hey Baek.”

 

The elder turned around, almost forgetting about the voice that had been calling out for him earlier.

 

“O-Oh, h-hey Taemin,” he stuttered.

 

“I uh didn’t realize you-”

 

“Had a boyfriend? Yeah so I’d appreciate it if you left him alone.”

 

Sehun possessively wrapped an arm around the elder’s waist. He stared down the other with a dark, menacing glint in his eyes.

 

“Right, I’ll uh see you in class Baek.”

 

“Y-Yeah, see you,” the elder awkwardly smiled.

 

They silently watched as Taemin walked away, Sehun’s arm still wrapped around the elder’s waist.

 

A light shade of pink was still on Baekhyun's face as he shifted in place, Sehun quickly, yet reluctantly, let go of him.

 

“Sorry.”

 

“I-It’s okay, uh thanks for- you know, yeah,” Baekhyun nervously chuckled.

 

“Yeah, no problem.” Sehun cleared his throat, scratching the back of his head.

 

“Well,I’ll see you later. I gotta uh go to work,” the elder quickly blurted out before running off before the other could even say anything.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

When Baekhyun showed up two hours early for work, he received a questioning look from his coworker but when Baekhyun offered to cover the rest of his shift, his coworker gladly accepted and quickly dashed into the staff break room.

 

It was a busy day in the store today, which Baekhyun was somewhat glad about since staying busy kept his mind off of the kiss with Sehun.

 

He didn’t know why his heart beat so fast every time he thought about it, Sehun only did it to get rid of Taemin for him.

 

He’s never even thought of Sehun as more than a friend.

 

He had always thought him as his childhood friend, the little kid from next door, but now that he thought about it, Sehun wasn’t a kid anymore.

 

He was taller than him now, his shoulders were broader and he had a certain way of making Baekhyun feel funny inside whenever he caught the younger looking at him.

 

He didn't realize that he had been brooding over Sehun for _hours_ until the last customer in line walked up to the register, and Baekhyun released a sigh when the store was finally devoid of customers.

 

He checked the time on his phone, a bit disappointed that Sehun didn’t even try to text or call to talk about what had happened, and saw that it was to close up the store.

 

The brunette shut off all the lights and locked up the front doors and he gathered his things before stepping out the back door and locking it.

 

The parking lot was empty, except for one black car parked right in front of the entrance.

 

Baekhyun spotted a head of blonde hair from the other side of the car, he felt his heartbeat quicken.

 

Sehun was leaning on the driver’s side door, his hands stuck into the pockets of his black hoodie.

 

The younger whipped his head around after hearing footsteps, his face softened at the sight of the elder.

 

“Hey, hyung.”

 

“H-Hey Sehun.”

 

They were silent for a minute after that, both staring down at their feet.

 

“So...what are you doing here?”

 

“I uh- wanted to talk...about today,” Sehun said, nervously licking his lips as he waited for the other to say something.

 

Baekhyun simply nodded, not able to bring himself to make eye contact with the younger.

 

“Hyung, I...I didn’t just kiss you to make Taemin leave you alone.”

 

Baekhyun looked up from the ground and found himself frozen in place as the younger walked toward him, he suddenly found it slightly difficult to breathe.

 

“Look hyung,” the younger sighed, “I know you probably think of me as like your little brother or something. I’m not that little kid that lives next door to you, I’m only a year younger than you. And I’ve grown up.”

 

Baekhyun felt paralyzed under the younger’s gaze, he slowly nodded. “I get that.”

 

“Do you? Because what I’m trying to say is that I think I’m- I think I’m in love with you.” Sehun stared deep into the other’s eyes.  

 

Baekhyun sucked in a breath, “W-What?”

 

“At first I just thought it was a crush, but every day that passes, I can’t stop thinking about you. I think I’m in love you and I think I’ve been in love with you with since were kids but I just never realized it and I know I sound like I’m being dramatic, but every time I see you I can’t even explain how happy I feel inside. Everytime you smile or laugh, I get this feeling in my chest like I can’t breathe and all I want to do is hug and kiss you. I couldn’t standing seeing you with Jungkook- or Chanyeol. When you guys kissed at Kris’s party, I wanted to punch his teeth in and after I kissed you today, I couldn’t stop thinking about how soft your lips were and how I just wanted to you kiss again.”

 

Sehun stopped talking, he realized he was almost of breath from the rambling and that he had the elder backed up against this car.

 

Baekhyun couldn’t do anything but stare back into the younger’s dark eyes, his heart beating so hard in his chest it felt like it was going to jump out from his throat.

 

His face felt hot even though it was extremely cold outside and he could see Sehun’s breath as the younger breathed heavily after his confession.

 

Sehun’s arms were on either sides of his body, caging him in against the car.

 

The younger leaned down until his lips were almost touching the other’s.

 

“You’re so fucking cute and I can barely hold myself back when I’m around you,” Sehun almost whispered.

 

Baekhyun felt his hot breath against his lips before they were covered by the same pair of soft lips from earlier that day.

 

Their lips molded together as the younger took charge and moved against the other’s lips.

 

Baekhyun hands were pressed up against Sehun’s chest as he grabbed onto the younger’s hoodie, Sehun’s lips moving hungrily against his own.

 

He let out a small whimper when the younger gently sucked on his bottom lip as he slowly pulled away.

 

Sehun looked down to see a flushed Baekhyun, his eyes hooded,his lips wet and swollen from abuse, and his chest heaving as he panted.

 

He leaned down to press to a hot kiss on the base of the elder’s neck.

 

A choked moan escaped Baekhyun’s lips when the younger sucked on the sensitive skin.

 

“Fuck,” Sehun breathed.  

 

They stayed there for a few minutes in silence, their foreheads resting against each other as they composed themselves.

 

“I-I think...I love you too,” Baekhyun broke the silence.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

 

“Oh hey, what are you doing here so late? Why didn’t you text me I would’ve ordered pizza or something,” Jongin said, opening the door for his best friend.

 

“No it’s okay I’m not hungry...I needed to talk to you.”

 

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

 

“Oh.”

 

“I never actually thought he’d like me back. Jongin, I’m sorry,” the blonde sighed.

 

“What are you sorry for, idiot. Falling in love?” Jongin lightly chuckled.

 

“I just- I never really thought this would happen you know? I’m mad at myself for liking him because I knew how much you liked him. I don’t know, I think I’ve liked him since we were kids and just never really realized you know? Are you mad at me?”

 

Jongin sighed as he leaned back on the couch and stared up at the ceiling.

 

“Of course I’m not. I mean yeah I’m a little sad but you’re my best friend, I want you to be happy. And dude you guys found each other after like ten years, that’s gotta mean something.” Jongin turned to give his friend a soft smile.

 

“You’re a really good best friend you know that?”

 

“I think you mean I’m the _best_ best friend.”

 

Sehun rolled his eyes and they both broke out in laughter.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_One year later._

 

“What if your parents don’t like me?” The elder nervously fidgeted in passenger seat of the car.

 

“Hyung, they’ve known you since you were a kid. They love you,” Sehun chuckled.

 

“It’s been over ten years! What if they don’t remember me? What if they hate me? What if they have to force themselves to be nice to me? Maybe we should reschedule,” Baekhyun rambled.

 

“A bit dramatic, hyung,” Sehun chuckled. “Trust me, it’ll be fine. I love you and so will they.” He gave the elder’s hand a reassuring squeeze.  

 

“Fine,” the elder mumbled, a light pink dusting his cheeks.

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

The blonde peaked into the kitchen, looking for his mother.

 

“You’re finally here!” Sehun’s mother excitedly exclaimed. She quickly untied her dirtied apron and threw it on the table to give her son a hug.

 

“Hey mom,” Sehun chuckled, wrapping his arms around his mom.

 

“Your dad and I missed you so much! Where’s this new boyfriend of yours? We were waiting all day to meet him. Why didn’t you tell us his name? He isn’t a criminal or anything right? How did you guys meet?”

 

Sehun laughed, amused at his mom’s rambling. “No mom, I am not dating a criminal. Calm down, I think you’ll be happy to see him...Hyung?”

 

Baekhyun timidly stepped out from behind the wall.

 

“Hello ajumma,” he said nervously, “Do you remember me?”

 

“Baekhyun?! Of course I remember you, oh my gosh. It’s been so long, the last time I saw you you were just a little kid! Now look at you all grown up! And you’re dating Sehunnie? I can’t believe you guys found each other again after so long and you didn’t even tell me, Sehun!” his mother complained as she pulled the brunette in for a big hug.

 

“It’s about time you guys finally went out, I always knew Sehunnie had a little crush on you and he was so sad when you moved away. Look at you guys now, happy together.”

 

“Okay okay mom, you’re embarrassing me,” Sehun whined, “I’m gonna show him my room okay?”

 

 

 

~~~

 

 

 

“Hey babe do you wanna unpack now or later?” Sehun unzipped his bag and pulled out the hoodies he packed for the weekend. He turned around when he didn’t get a reply from the elder.

 

Baekhyun was sitting on his bed looking around the room, Sehun noticed the elder’s cheeks were slightly pink.

 

“What?” Sehun asked, amused.

 

“What do you mean?”

 

The blonde raised a brow as he walked over to the other and sat down next to him.

 

He lightly laughed when the other avoided eye contact. “You’re blushing.”

 

Baekhyun’s eyes slightly widened and he immediately slapped his hands over his cheeks. “I am not! I-I’m just not used to you calling me that…”

 

The blonde chuckled, wrapping an arm around his boyfriend’s body and pulling him back onto the bed.

 

They landed on their backs with a soft _thump_. The blonde got up and hovered over the other.

 

“You’re cute.”

 

Baekhyun rolled his eyes and playfully hit the younger’s chest. “Shut up.”

 

They both stared into each other eyes for a moment before Sehun slowly leaned down, capturing the elder’s lips in a kiss.

 

The elder felt a large hand sneak under his shirt, roughly gripping his hip when the door suddenly slammed open.

 

“Hey kids dinner’s rea-Oh!”

 

Baekhyun instantly shoved the younger’s off the bed with a surprised yelp.

 

Sehun landed on his butt with a loud thud and a quiet ‘ow!’ and the elder quickly sat up and straightened out his shirt.

 

“Mom, don’t you knock?” the blonde whined as he rubbed his sore bottom.

 

“Oops,” she giggled, “Sorry I didn’t mean to interrupt, I just wanted to tell you guys dinner ready.”

 

“We’ll be right out,” Sehun said.

 

The moment she left out of the door Baekhyun slapped his hands over his face in embarrassment, he felt absolutely mortified.

 

“I hate you.” Sehun heard his muffled voice through his hands.

 

The younger laughed light as he ruffled the elder’s hair.

 

 

 

“I love you too, hyung.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for all the sebaek shippers <3
> 
> lol a couple ppl on aff were like you didnt do a meeting the parents for kaibaek ! prob bc im lowkey biased toward sebaek...you guys know i love my sebaek lol

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to those that stuck through to the end lol  
> like i said this was my first chaptered fic so i worked really hard on it and put a lot of time and effort to it so hope you guys liked it <3 
> 
> comments are appreciated ~
> 
> [tumblr](http://www.attractive-asshole.tumblr.com) / [aff](http://www.asianfanfics.com/profile/view/864487) / [lj](https://zyximb.livejournal.com/)


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